tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566Wed, 06 Sep 2017 02:51:49 +0000vaccinesevolutionautismsciencedeathmeaslesfluanti-sciencenewspertussisH1N1deathsblogmedicineAndrew Wakefieldbiologychicken poximmunityskepticismwhooping coughThiomersaladministrationeducationThimerosalaccuracygeneticsherd immunityinformationmeningitisoutbreakpoliosufferingweb pageStupidactioncriminalfraudhistoryhysterialogicmediaopinionpublic healthsafetysmallpoxupdatesAIDSCDCDNAEuropeGoogleHIVInfluenzaMMRNPRVAERSabiogenesisactivismallergiesapologybacteriacharitycostsdatadenialismdoctorepidemicethicsformaldehydehealth-carehepatitishumourinsurancelatexlawliesmathmercuryreactionsmall-victoriesspacestatisticssupportvaricellavideoFacts, Not Fantasy!Welcome to Facts, not fantasy. This is a "learning node" of the internet where we try to clear up some misconceptions and lies that are going around about vaccines and evolution. Click on the main item of interest (Vaccines or Evolution) and you should find a list of "points" that you are free to use (or research). All we ask is that you link back to this page if you use anything from it.
Thank you for visiting.http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)Blogger366125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-2481183008221951882Sun, 19 Aug 2012 22:21:00 +00002012-08-19T18:21:00.513-04:00outbreakpertussisvaccinesAnti-vax pro-disease nutters make people sickAnti-vaxers seem to have a problem with reality.&nbsp; Even when you give them real, hard data.&nbsp; So, I just wanted to put these two links up.&nbsp; basically, because these nutters want to go against reality, people are getting sick from preventable diseases.&nbsp; Not only sick, but infants are DYING as well...<br /><br />The Bad Astronomer has this to say:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h2><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/07/24/washington-pertussis-outbreak-is-very-very-bad/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Washington pertussis outbreak is very, very bad">Washington pertussis outbreak is very, very bad</a></h2>This is one of the scariest graphs I’ve seen in a long time. <br /><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6128a1.htm?s_cid=mm6128a1_w" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-52060" height="312" src="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2012/07/pertussis_2011_2012.gif" title="pertussis_2011_2012" width="610" /></a><br />This plot, from the CDC, shows probable and confirmed cases of pertussis – whooping cough – in the state of Washington from 2011 through June 2012. Last year’s numbers are the short, light-blue-grey rectangles, and this year’s are the dark blue. The plot is by week, so you can see the 2011 numbers slowly growing across the year; then this year’s numbers suddenly taking a huge leap upward. They are reporting the new rate as <strong>13 times larger than last year</strong>. Note that 83% of these cases have been confirmed as being pertussis, while 17% are probable. The drop in recent weeks is due to a lag in complete reporting of cases.<br />Got that? There are 13 times as many people – <em>more than 2500 in total so far</em> – getting pertussis right now as there were last year at this time in Washington.&nbsp;</blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/07/24/washington-pertussis-outbreak-is-very-very-bad/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST.</a></b></span><br /><br />Not only did the Bad Astronomer have this to post, but Steve Salzberg was the original poster that Dr. Plait generated his post from.&nbsp; Of course, the source material was from the CDC, which thanks to nutters is having a hard time on that last C in their name...<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h3 class="post-title entry-title">Anti-vaccination propagandists help create the worst whooping cough epidemic in 70 years </h3><div class="post-header"><div class="post-header-line-1"><div class="post-share-buttons"><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-email" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=8211371452778645597&amp;postID=3010864460855425536&amp;target=email" target="_blank" title="Email This"><span class="share-button-link-text"></span></a><a class="goog-inline-block share-button sb-facebook" href="http://www.blogger.com/share-post.g?blogID=8211371452778645597&amp;postID=3010864460855425536&amp;target=facebook" target="_blank" title="Share to Facebook"><span class="share-button-link-text"></span></a></div><span class="post-author vcard">By <span class="fn">Steven Salzberg</span></span><span class="post-timestamp">on <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://genome.fieldofscience.com/2012/07/anti-vaccination-propagandists-help.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2012-07-22T07:00:00-07:00">7/22/2012 07:00:00 AM</abbr></a></span><span class="post-icons"></span></div></div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mua3-MCn-ds/UAwGbTpOMVI/AAAAAAAAAOA/Hd2QF-sAZNM/s1600/9780465021499.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mua3-MCn-ds/UAwGbTpOMVI/AAAAAAAAAOA/Hd2QF-sAZNM/s200/9780465021499.jpg" width="131" /></a><br /><span style="background-color: white;">The great northwest of the U.S. is known for its natural beauty.</span><span style="background-color: white;">&nbsp; </span><span style="background-color: white;">It's also a high-tech region with a highly educated public - not exactly the kind of place one would expect to fall for the anti-science rhetoric of the anti-vaccine movement.</span><br /><div class="p2"></div><div class="p3"><span class="s1">But it has.&nbsp; The anti-vaxxers have convinced a frighteningly high number of parents in Washington State to withhold vaccines from their children.&nbsp; A story in <i>The Seattle Times</i> last year <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015215221_vaccines03m.html">reported&nbsp;that</a>&nbsp;</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="s1">"</span>Washington [state] parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kindergartners at a rate higher than anywhere else in the country."&nbsp;&nbsp;</blockquote><div class="p3">This despite the fact that the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation (formed by the founder of Microsoft, which is headquartered in Seattle) is one of the world's <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/vaccines/pages/default.aspx">leading sponsors of vaccine research</a>. &nbsp;</div><div class="p4"></div><div class="p3">When the vaccination rates drop, everyone becomes more vulnerable to infectious diseases.&nbsp; When more than 90% of the population is vaccinated, we have "herd immunity" - this means the disease can't spread because there aren't enough susceptible people in the community.&nbsp; So the high rate of vaccine refusal in Washington makes it easier for whooping cough (and other diseases) to spread.</div><div class="p4"></div><div class="p5">The media has been complicit in spreading some of anti-vaccine misinformation.&nbsp; Sometimes it comes straight from the media itself, such as the credulous, anti-science, <a href="http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/anti-vaccine-propaganda-from-sharyl-attkisson-of-cbs-news-2/">anti-vax CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson</a>. Other times it comes from talk shows, magazines, or <a href="http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2012/04/thank-you-american-airlines.html">even airline advertisements</a> that provide a platform for anti-vax celebrity doctors such as Jay Gordon&nbsp;(who gained fame as <a href="http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/thanks-jenny-mccarthy-thanks-for-the-measles/">Jenny McCarthy's son's doctor</a>) and "Dr. Bob" Sears, who has published his own "alternative" vaccine schedule in <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/1/e164.full">a book filled with anti-vaccine nonsense</a>.&nbsp; These characters continue to claim, at every chance they get, that vaccines cause autism (as Gordon has said, repeatedly), or that they cause other harms, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.&nbsp; They use their medical degrees and their faux concern "for the children" to frighten parents into keeping their kids unvaccinated.</div></blockquote><div class="p5"><a href="http://genome.fieldofscience.com/2012/07/anti-vaccination-propagandists-help.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: large;">CLICK HERE TO READ THIS POST </span></b></a></div><div class="p5"><br /></div><div class="p5">I only wish that there was a way to criminally prosecute these nutters for the pain and suffering they are causing.</div>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/08/anti-vax-pro-disease-nutters-make.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-8811633371199658714Mon, 07 May 2012 08:35:00 +00002012-05-07T04:35:26.017-04:00hysteriaStupidvaccines40 Reasons - Medical Ludditery at it's finest<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="Section1" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sometimes while poking around the anti-vaccine lobby you find something so insane that not even Natural News would touch it. And I have found something that's madness incarnate.&nbsp;</span><br /><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7034398534949114566" name="more"></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />In this corner I present to you&nbsp;<a href="http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/40Reasons.htm" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Jagganath Chatterjee</a>, whose mindbogglingly daft 40 Reasons to Not Vaccinate your child attempts to bring the anti-vaccine movement to India. So with that in mind, here are 40 arguments against his 40. &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></div><div class="Section1" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">1. There is no scientific study to determine whether vaccines have really prevented diseases. Rather disease graphs show vaccines have been introduced at the fag end of epidemics when the disease was already in its last stages. In case of Small Pox the vaccine actually caused a great spurt in the incidence of disease killing thousands before public outcry led to its withdrawal.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span></i></blockquote>I don't know what planet Jagganath lives on but in the real world Smallpox vaccination was halted when the world was declared free of smallpox and we didn't need to vaccinate for something considered extinct. Vaccines were introduced in response to&nbsp;<a href="http://a-million-gods.blogspot.in/2012/04/down-with-sickness.html" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">epidemics</a>&nbsp;and further epidemics after those became less and less severe. However with every vaccination the severity of the outbreaks lessened. I did point out the idea that smallpox vaccinations were either introduced at the end of a outbreak or before one with no effect is a common idea in vaccine denialists in a previous article.</div><div class="Section1" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></span></div><div class="Section1" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #783f04;">2. There are no long-term studies on vaccine safety. Very short-term unscientific tests are carried out where the vaccinated subjects are checked against another group who are given another vaccine. Technically the tests should be carried out against a non-vaccinated group. No one really knows what protocols are followed at such industry-sponsored trials</span>.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span></i></blockquote>On the contrary. There are plenty of studies on vaccine safety over entire generations. Jagganath CLEARLY doesn't understand what a placebo vaccine is. A placebo is anything that mimics all the components of the drug except the active component. How does one mimic a positive immune reaction though? By giving another vaccine where there is no overlap with the test vaccine. That way the only difference is sensitisation to different antigens. And we have statistics that compare to non vaccinated groups. There is plenty of literature showing the categorical fall in the incidence of a disease after the vaccine is introduced such as in the case of the incidence of Smallpox or the various studies into the introduction of the Measles vaccine. Not to mention that all the protocols of vaccine testing are published.<br /><br />What Jagganath means is "I don't know the protocols so I am going to assume no one does".<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #783f04;">3. There has never been any attempt to compare a vaccinated population against a non vaccinated population to know what vaccines are doing to the children and the society.</span></span></i></blockquote>Jagganath's problem is he thinks that the vaccine test has to occur simultaneously rather than as a timed comparison. AKA you take a group of people and note the existing rates and then vaccinated them and see what happens to the rates. He wants a side by side comparison where one group lives and one group dies when the results are the same as comparing to existing rates.<br /><br />In India the effect is insanely clear. Diseases that once killed in the thousands are vanishing. Polio is eradicated from India (A frankly titanic and insanely impressive effort)<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #783f04;">4. The child receives not one but many vaccines. There are no tests to determine the effects of multiple vaccines.</span></span></i></blockquote>Because there are many diseases. And so far what we see is that all those vaccines drop their respective diseases creating a drop in mortality rate.<br /><br />None of these vaccines are given at the same time and anti-vaccine luddites love categorising multivalent vaccines and strains as "individual" vaccines. Therefore to them the OPV and Polio vaccines either count as two or three depending on strain.<br /><br />Again, there are plenty of tests every one of them shows that the majority of people who utilise vaccines are fine.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">5. There is no scientific basis for vaccinating infants. As per senior doctors quoted by the Times of India, "Children suffer from less that 2% of vaccine preventable illnesses but 100% of the vaccines are targeted towards them." The vaccine pioneers who have recommended abundant caution before vaccinating the population have never advocated Mass vaccinations.</span></i></blockquote>Really? Those doctors are fucking morons then. The leading causes of deaths in all children in India are Diarrheoa, Pneumonia, Measles and Malaria. That with a enforced vaccine program and other drives the state of Keral has produced an infant mortality rate of around 11 per 1000 compared to the frankly batshit insane norm of 70 per 1000. Oh and 70 per 1000 is not the same all over India. There are parts of India where the rate is far worse. Only Malaria is not vaccine preventable, diarrhoea and pneumonia have various vaccines that reduce mortality and measles is really uncommon in areas with access to the MMR vaccine.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">There is plenty of scientific basis for vaccinating infants. The entire point is that the maternal immune system stops protecting the child after a few weeks of birth and indeed in India the maternal immune system isn't all that strong due to the functional malnourishment that is endemic to India (between 60% of people in India are functionally malnourished - AKA missing vital nutrients often due to wacky diets prescribed by sadhus and alt. medicine practitioners).&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">6. Children are vaccinated simply because parents can be frightened to forcefully vaccinate their children. Vaccinating infants is the most profitable business both for the manufa. cturers as well as the doctors.</span></i></blockquote>Jagganath is a moron. There I said it. It's really bloody hard to be polite about a topic. Look, if you had a guy from NASA talk about space shuttles and amazing rockets and then some flat earther came out and started quoting flat earth nonsense, the guy from NASA would call this man a moron and everyone else would nod along. I don't see why I should respect Jagganath or his pro-disease nonsense.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jx__sdAfQFE/T34X8P_6fPI/AAAAAAAAEOY/lsMdX-i4dmc/s1600/falling-off-flat-earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc0000; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jx__sdAfQFE/T34X8P_6fPI/AAAAAAAAEOY/lsMdX-i4dmc/s320/falling-off-flat-earth.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">Why should we spend money on rockets when we can spend it on some sort of space ship.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The treatment for Measles in India would cost around Rs. 300 to Rs. 500 for the average child. The vaccine costs Rs. Free. Remind me again is free bigger or smaller a value than 300? Most children in India are entitled to free vaccines and the government recommended schedule is available from government healthcare centres for free. Yes. India's government can barely afford to feed people and the power where I live doesn't work and corruption is so rife in it that it's easier to count non-corrupt people in politics... And even they managed to do something amazing in providing basic vaccination for free. And it shows! The infant mortality has consistently fallen across the board in areas with good healthcare acccess. India's current infant mortality is is a whopping 62 per 1000. Still high but falling.<br /><br />Profit? Most vaccine manufacturers also make drugs. There is more money in sickness than in prevention. I don't think the anti-vaccine lobby understand that enough.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">7. The Government of India has come out with a quarter page advertisement in The Hindu warning parents not to vaccinate beyond the Government approved vaccines. Parents have been advised against vaccinating in private clinics and hospitals.</span></i></blockquote>No they have not. I think what was in the papers was a warning not to vaccinate beyond the government approved list of vaccine companies as many fradulent companies may exist. And I don't think the Government of India has ever published an article like this. I think this is a lie.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;<i style="color: #783f04;">8. The Orissa Chapter of the Indian Association of Pediatricians has admitted in a letter to the CM, Orissa, that private clinics and hospitals are ill equipped to store vaccines and warned parents not to vaccinate upon the advise of private practitioners and hospitals.</i></span></blockquote>Bollocks. I checked. No one has said this. And you can store vaccines in a normal bog standard fridge. If push comes to shove you can make an ice box and store them. No one has said this, it seems like the only people who have heard this information in India are Jagganatha and his luddites.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://www.act1stcall.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/L_Labcold_pharmacy_vaccine_refrigerator_glass_door_model.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc0000; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.act1stcall.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/L_Labcold_pharmacy_vaccine_refrigerator_glass_door_model.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; position: relative;" width="181" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">Oh Noes! Where would we get a Fridge!</td></tr></tbody></table><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;<i style="color: #783f04;">9. ALL THE VACCINE INGREDIENTS ARE EXTREMELY TOXIC IN NATURE.</i></span></blockquote>In large quantities yes. In a vaccine most of these are in miniscule amounts that our bodies are capable of dealing with and that we are routinely exposed to more amounts of these "toxins" (particularly in India where environmental dumping laws are rather more libertarian than in the west) in our daily lives or produce them within our own bodies.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">10. Vaccines contain heavy metals, cancer causing substances, toxic chemicals, live and genetically modified viruses, contaminated serum containing animal viruses and foreign genetic material, extremely toxic decontaminants and adjuvants, untested antibiotics, none of which can be injected without causing any harm.</span></i></blockquote>Aluminium and Mercury is also found in a whole lot of traditional indian medicine in far larger quantities. I don't see Jagganath having a hissy fit over those. And without the live or genetically modified (I assume this is what he thinks attenuation is) viruses in the vaccine how does he think they work? These are arguments hashed out repeatedly.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vEbIXcFcUIc/TclfSY200fI/AAAAAAAABDs/rm7fUhVQl0g/s1600/BETTY-WHITE-HOT-DOG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc0000; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vEbIXcFcUIc/TclfSY200fI/AAAAAAAABDs/rm7fUhVQl0g/s400/BETTY-WHITE-HOT-DOG.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; position: relative;" width="290" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">There you go! Fan Service! Famous woman eats phallic food. You are welcome!</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I do love the idea of foreign genetic material. Did you know that roughly three to four times a day I consume foreign genetic material. Humans are so addicted to foreign genetic material that if you stop&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twincities.com/weird/ci_20475948/report-swiss-woman-starved-doing-sunlight-fast" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">consuming foreign genetic material</a>&nbsp;you die.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="color: #783f04;">11. The mercury, aluminum and live viruses in vaccines is behind the huge epidemic of autism&nbsp;(1 in 10 worldwide as per doctors in the USA), a fact that has been admitted by the US Vaccine Court.</i></span></blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://www.gourmandizer.com/wilsons/images/kf2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc0000; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gourmandizer.com/wilsons/images/kf2.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; position: relative;" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px; text-align: left;">If this were Naruto this man would have the power to see through time or summon a giant badger when he blinks</td><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Lying again? Not surprised! Hannah Polling was given money not because she has autism but because she had a mitochondrial disorder and that no one could say that the vaccines hadn't exacerbated it. But guess what? Mitochondrial disorders are insanely rare. Like "Should be on an episode of House" rare. Put it this way, I have seen a case of Wilson's Disease which was featured on house and that is a lot more common than this.<br /><br />1 in 10 worldwide? More like 1 in a 100. And the US vaccine court is not the high court of science. At times like this I believe that there is a god and he took me seriously when I uttered Voltaire's Prayer.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">12.The CDC of USA, the vaccine watchdog, has publicly admitted that its much-publicized 2003 study denying any link between vaccines and autism, is flawed. The Chief of CDC Dr Gerberding has confessed to the media (CNN) that vaccines can cause "autism like symptoms". The Autism epidemic&nbsp;is found only in those countries that have allowed mass vaccinations.</span></i></blockquote>The CDC is not the vaccine watchdog but is an entity that does public health and tracks disease trends in the USA so as to better combat emerging threats in medicine. It's basically the Intelligence branch of American Medicine. They audit and improve the functioning of a entire system of medicine.<br /><br />And we produced information categorically stating that there is no link between autism and vaccination since the rates of autism are the same in vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. Autism diagnosis is rare in India because there is no infrastructure and for the same reason why kids in the 80s didn't "suffer from autism".<br /><br />Because we all knew weird, antisocial or plain crazy kids. Kids that today would be diagnosed with autism. Many of these kids grew up and adapted to live in the real world. Many did not and became recluses. The point is today we are capable of recognising these children. The vast majority of kids on the autism spectrum fall under the "slightly weird but normal" category of "80s children". As for flawed research? I am guessing the CDC's study in Jagganath's opinion was flawed but the Andrew Wakefield one was performed as the acme of scientific rigour which proved that vaccines can travel through time to cause autism and epilepsy is a form of autism.<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">13. In the year 1999, the US Government instructed vaccine manufacturers to remove mercury from vaccines "with immediate effect". But mercury still remains a part of many vaccines. The vaccines with mercury were never recalled and were given to children up&nbsp;to the year 2006. "Mercury free" vaccines contain 0.05mcg of mercury, enough to permanently damage a infant.</span></i></div></blockquote>Firstly, the only vaccine with thiomersal (not mercury, otherwise I am going to claim that all my food contains deadly deadly chlorine! And explosive sodium!) left in the USA is the flu vaccine and that contains 20 mcg of it. Not 0.05 mcg. The problem is Jagganath again cannot tell the difference between different SI units.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">14. IN INDIA NO ATTEMPT HAS BEEN MADE TO ENSURE THAT MERCURY AND OTHER HEAVY METALS ARE REMOVED FROM VACCINES SIMPLY BECAUSE IT WOULD MAKE VACCINES COSTLIER.</span></i></blockquote>It would also make vaccines harder to distribute and there has been been no correlation with the minute amounts of aluminum hydroxide (you consume more aluminium hydroxide in over the counter anti-emetics, bulk laxatives and anti-heartbearn medication than in all the vaccines combined). I don't know what planet Jagganath lives in the government is on a tight budget and costlier vaccines actually means fewer people vaccinated.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">15. In a reply to then President Sri Abdul Kalam,&nbsp;the Health Ministry informed, "mercury is required to make the vaccines safe".&nbsp;To the authors query that "what are these vaccines that it requires the second most dangerous neurotoxin, mercury, to make them safe?", there was no reply.</span></i></div></blockquote>We routinely use neurotoxins in medicine such as Atropine and Neostigmine... These save people's lives. Botulin toxin is vital to the treatment of spastic paralysis and curare is vital to setting bones and heart surgery.<br /><br />Neurotoxins aren't safe but that doesn't mean they do not have a function. And many of these are far deadlier than mercury. Mercury in vaccines is in such a small amount that you get more mercury from eating fish and from drinking water from certain areas.<br /><br /><span id="goog_159701103"></span><span id="goog_159701104"></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/2950448119_0dac905db3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc0000; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/2950448119_0dac905db3.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(120, 63, 4); border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px;">Rice, Shark and Chicken. So very tasty.</td></tr></tbody></table><span id="goog_159701103"></span><span id="goog_159701104"></span><br /><br /><br /><br />And Abdul Kalam is a rocket scientist. A smart man but his knowledge of medical science is not the same as other people. I am sure this conversation didn't take place. Because medical textbooks mention the reason for the usage of thiomersol (Preservative, a miniscule dose of thiomersol keeps the solution free of bacteria, maintains attenuation and stops any fungal growth).<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">16. Mercury used in vaccines is second in toxicity only to the radioactive substance, Uranium. It is a neurotoxin that can damage the entire nervous system of the infant in no time.</span></i></blockquote>No it's not. There are more deadly neurotoxins out there and many that we use for medically related things. Neurotoxin isn't a "mechanism" there are specific ways they work. And I am sure pure sodium is as deadly but we regularly eat ionic sodium. Chemical structure is also vital.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">17. Mercury accumulates in fat. The brain being made entirely of fat cells, most of the mercury accumulates there giving rise to the peculiar symptoms of the autistic children.</span></i></blockquote>Maybe Jagganath's brain is made up of fat cells but the rest of us have brains that function due to neurons.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">18. The mercury used in vaccines is ethyl mercury. According to Indian doctors7 this is 1000 times more toxic than the usual methyl mercury.</span></i></blockquote>Yet according to reality methyl mercury is more toxic and in which planet is ethyl mercury equal to mercury? Ethyl indicates an ethyl (a two hydrocarbon group) while methyl indicates a single hydrocarbon group. How are these similar to mercury with no hydrocarbon groups? Oh that's right... Failure of basic high school chemistry here.<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;19. The aluminum present in vaccines makes the mercury, in any form,&nbsp;100 times more toxic.</span></i></blockquote>Yet the aluminium present in aluminium foil, juice packets and a variety of other places including over the counter antacids is perfectly safe. How does it make mercury 100 times more toxic? Magic? Oh wait... More Lies by anti-vax. And not even very good lies.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">20. As per an independent study aluminum and formaldehyde present in vaccines can increase the toxicity of&nbsp;mercury, in any form, by&nbsp;1000 times.</span></i></blockquote>Which is industrial grade nonsense of the highest order. I have&nbsp; been exposed to the kind of formaldehyde concentrations that would make Jagganath claim that I am the the bloody Superman (Cadavers for dissection are soaked in formaldehyde and the "smell" of formaldehyde is basically you inhaling rather huge quantitites of the stuff. Formaldehyde is poisonous but you do need a fair bit. The issue being that when you drink methanol all of it is converted into formaldehyde faster than you can process it.<br /><br />Formaldehyde is actually produced in our body as an intermediate in the production of Nucleic Acids. By Jagganath's logic the amount of mercury I consume in seafood often wrapped in foil plus attending anatomy dissections should have killed me. Or turned into some sort of mutant due to all that extra nucleic acids. I am pretty sure that's how biology works.<br /><br />If I lived in a comic book.<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">21. As per a Tehelka article on Autism, children are receiving 250 times more mercury through vaccines than they can possibly tolerate. The same article states that if one considers the WHO limit for mercury in water, they are receiving 50,000 times the limit. The limits set, incidentally, are for adults and not infants.</span></i></blockquote>Which is industrial grade bollocks because then you should be campaigning against the consumption of shark in southern India since that is a well known source of mercury.<br /><br />The WHO standard for water concentration of methyl mercury (the more toxic form) in water is 2 mcg per litre. Ethyl mercury is less toxic and excreted far faster than methyl mercury (over hours rather than days) with less absorption. In 10 days you have drunk more methyl mercury than a single vaccine. Congratulations.<br /><br />Oh food wise? Per person per day we consume around 20 mcg of mercury. More in some people who like a lot of fish.<br /><br />50,000 times the limit? In order to reach that value based on water you would multiple 2 x 50,000 = 100,000. Then you would divide by 20 = 5000.<br /><br />This means that in order to produce a dose 50,000 times the limit of the EPA you would need to inject yourself with 5000 vaccines simultaneously and via IV. Not that only one regular vaccine really contains any significant quantity of thiomersal and that I don't think anyone recieves 5000 vaccines in their life time. A quick check and it turns out there is like at most 20 to 25 shots throughout your life. I am pretty sure if I injected you with 5000 vaccines (assuming each is a tiny 3 mL dose) I would need a syringe 15 Litres in capacity. I must point out there is 15 litres of fluid in an average human body so we would need to double the human volume. The argument is frankly stupid.<br /><br />This is without going into the fact that the body excretes ethyl mercury and that Jagganath swaps between inorganic mercury, methyl mercury and dimethyl mercury stats.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">22. Autism in India has emerged as the most rapidly growing epidemic amongst children. From 1 in 500 it has steadily climbed to 1 in 37 today. As per Indian doctors, "You can go to any class of any school today and find an autistic child."</span></i></blockquote>Amusing. Since the incidence of autism in India is not 1 in 37. Infact the incidence rate being quoted is allegedly one from Korea. Infact the current autism rate in India is UNKNOWN due to the complete lack of proper psychiatric care available across the nation. The major thrust of indian medicine is primary healthcare with a few secondary care specialities. Psychiatry is sadly not a field of much importance due to the social and clinical stigma of such cases.<br /><br />However the truth is the diagnosis of autism is a very difficult task and that autism has sadly become a wonderful pop diagnosis by many doctors. Many children with autism seemingly "grow out" of their disorders. Some are genuinely autistic and have been socialised in a way that they understand behaviour and have adopted it. Some are however not autistic. There are shy, quiet and weird children. Their shyness, quietness and weirdness may not be pathological, it may merely be a quirk of personality. Psychiatry as a science is extremely subjective (for a science) and I do feel that sometimes parents think that any deviation from the idea of normal demands a psychiatric explanation for such behaviour.<br /><br />1 in 100 sounds about right for the current incidence of autism. Globally that's probably the rate with local variations in distribution. I believe the problem in India is due to the complete lack of infrastructure with regards to diagnosis of autism. Autism is not the be all and end all of the world. Many autistic people live normal lives that are indistinguishable from you or me. Most are for all intents and purposes normal. We may as well start worrying about the rise of dyslexia in our populations.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">23. Autism is a permanent disability that affects the child physically, mentally and emotionally. It makes the child loose social contact. It impedes both the physical and mental growth of the child. It destroys the brain causing severe memory and attention problems. According to vaccine researcher Dr Harris Coulter, vaccines cause children to become pervert and criminal. All the school shootings by the children in the USA are by autistic children. Vaccines can cause more harm that even the medical community privately acknowledges.</span></i></blockquote>Jagganath here crosses the line and limbos under the bar of good taste. And I set that bar really bloody low to the ground.<br /><br />So let's throw down some medicine. Autism is clinically defined as a developmental disorder that occurs in the first 3 years of life. It is a PHYSICAL condition linked to abnormal biology and chemistry. The exact aetiology of autism is UNKNOWN. Any person saying that they know the cause of autism is vaccines is trying to sell a load of wank and should be called out for being such a wanker.<br /><br />There is a genetic variation that causes autism. This is because monozygotic twins (effective clones) exhibit it more if one of the pair has it than dizygotic twins (two separate eggs and sperm). More boys (3 to 4 times more) are affected than girls indicating it is linked directly or indirectly to the X chromosome (If it was Y based it would be solely in boys). There are very specific methods of diagnosing autism (eg. CHAT and the ASQ) including genetic and metabolic tests.<br /><br />The major problem with autism is that parents fear bringing children in for diagnosis. As the stigma of autism and mental disorder has fallen in the west, so has the increase in Autism diagnosis as parents are more likely to bring their children in for diagnosis and care.<br /><br />There are five methods of treating autism. Applied Behaviour Analysis, Cognitive Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy Linked to Learning and Medication. Medication is solely advised in cases of autistic children who are afflicted with destructive behaviour that makes them dangerous, extreme compulsion, mood swings and aggression. Sometimes it helps in case of insomnia and in cases of dietary issues.<br /><br />Dr. Harris Coulter can jump in a fucking well for all I care but there has been no link between autism and criminal behaviour. Nor school shootings. It's the use of a tragic occurence to scare people into thinking that if you vaccinate then your kid will shoot up a school.<br /><br />At no point did anyone want to talk about what went through those children's minds when they shot up those schools, why they thought those things so that we can stop further such attacks. No one was interested in the "why" of the situation. And one can point out that ease of access to guns helps.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">24. Autistic children also suffer from severe bowel disorders. As per Dr Andrew Wakefield, this is due to the vaccine strain live measles virus in the MMR vaccine. Nearly all children become fully autistic after the MMR shot.</span></i></blockquote><a href="http://a-million-gods.blogspot.in/2011/03/facts-not-fantasy.html" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Andrew Wakefield</a>&nbsp;purposefully misdiagnosed children and subjected them to a series of invasive tests and produced a toe curlingly bad piece of research solely to make money via a lawsuit.<br /><br />Most children do not develop autism after the MMR vaccine.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">25. The DPT also causes children to regress giving rise to fears that multiple live virus vaccines are an important cause behind autism. If three live viruses can cause so much harm we can well imagine what today’s five and seven viruses vaccines will do to children.</span></i></blockquote>They do not cause children to regress. Infact one of the oddities of vaccination is that vaccinated children have lower incidences of neurological conditions than non-vaccinated children. The DPT vaccine is also bacterial (Corneybacterium Diptheriae, Bordetella Pertussis and Clostridium Tetanii) and not viral. So there is that.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">26. Before the autism epidemic, it is already well known that vaccines have caused the cancer epidemic in today’s society. Both the Small Pox and the Oral Polio Vaccine are made from monkey serum. This serum has helped many cancer causing monkey viruses, 60 found so far, to enter the human blood stream.</span></i></blockquote>The method by which variola and polio viruses were attenuated would also affect the simian virus thus immunising us against the viruses themselves. The cancer epidemic is due to the fact we live so goddamn long. You have to die of something. Human life is a series of bottle necks. Vaccines destroy one bottleneck so more people die at the other bottlenecks. To someone living in the DRC or some other Least Developed Country heart attacks are rare because most people do not make it to that particular age of where that bottle neck of health occurs. We do.<br /><br />Vaccines caused cancer by ensuring more people live longer. The longer people are alive the more likely they are to get cancer. Prostate cancer is really rare if most people die by the age of 45.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i>27.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">It is also known that it is the use of green monkey serum in vaccines that has led to the transfer of the Sivian Immune deficiency Virus (SIV) from monkeys into humans. The SIV and the HIV that causes AIDS are very similar.</span></i></blockquote>Actually it was probably due to the mixing of human blood and ape/monkey blood during the slaughter of bushmeat in Africa. The SIV and HIV are retroviruses and are actually really fragile. The attenuation procedure would actually kill them outright.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">28. Not only AIDS, a blood cancer in infants (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) that is affecting children in thousands is also due to the extremely toxic nature of vaccine ingredients.</span></i></blockquote>ALL is mainly due to exposure to radiation, translocations of 9/22 and 4/11 chromosomes and benzene exposure. It shows high occurences in Down's, Fanconi's Anaemia, Bloom's, X-linked Agammaglobulinemia, Ataxia telangiectasia and other diseases.<br /><br />It's not due to vaccines.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">29. Infantile jaundice and also infantile diabetes&nbsp;is also scientifically connected to the toxic vaccines.</span></i></blockquote>Let's break this down separately.<br /><br />Infantile Jaundice is due to a variety of reasons. There is good old physiological jaundice which is something that nearly every baby born suffers from. This is due to increased blood load on liver, incomplete uptake, incomplete conjugation of billirubin and incomplete excretion.<br /><br />Now the pathological causes are more common. Membrane disorders, Sepsis, Arteriovenous malformation, G6PD deficiency, Pyruvate Kinase deficiency, Sickle cell Anaemia, Alpha Thalassemia, Haemolytic Disease of Newborn, Rh incompatibility, Breast milk feeding (yes... Seriously though? If that's the case the baby is placed under a white light photoincubator and feeding is continued since the benefits of the feed outweigh the jaundice caused), Cephalohaematoma, Polycythemia Vera, Hypothyroid, Gilbert's Syndrom, Criggler Najjar Syndrome, TORCH, Galactosemia, Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, Cystic Fibrosis, Total Parenteral Nutrition and Alagille Syndrome.<br /><br />Note how vaccines aren't in the list.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i style="color: #783f04;">29. The live polio viruses used in the Oral Polio Vaccine has caused Vaccine Attributed Paralytic Polio in more than 65,000 children as per doctors of the Indian Medical Association. In the USA this vaccine has caused polio 16 years after administration. The OPV has also let loose a new strain of polio in both India and Africa. The OPV is banned in other countries.</i></span></blockquote>Vaccine Associated Polio is mainly seen in children who aren't properly vaccinated by the OPV. It's a rare complication caused by an insufficiently vaccinated individual being exposed to the OPV in normal sources of infection.<br /><br />In India last year there were just 12 cases of Vaccine Associated Polio. In a country of 1 billion people. The OPV is the preferred vaccine in areas where endemic polio is present due to the higher levels of immunity it grants over the IPV and due to the sub-clinical transfer mechanism granting other people some mode of immunity. As wild cases of polio disappear due to the vaccine preventing the spread and propogation of wild polio countries swap to the IPV.<br /><br />India has endemic polio, so the OPV is used.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">30. Vaccines contain serum from not only chimpanzees and monkeys but also from cows, pigs, chickens, eggs, horses, and even human serum and tissues extracted from aborted fetuses.</span></i></blockquote>And?<br /><br />This really is an argument based on "See all this weird stuff! It's not natural!". Just because you cannot understand function does not mean that something doesn't work. I don't understand exactly how a jet engine works (I understand it's compression of air but precise function is alien to me) but that doesn't mean I can mock the damn thing.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">31. Deaths and permanent disability from vaccines is very common and known by the medical community. They are instructed by the Government to keep quiet and not to associate such cases with vaccines.</span></i></blockquote>The government of India couldn't plan a booze up in a pub. Seriously? When they tried to run the Commonwealth Games they had to rush to finish building, fucked up the accomodations and had a shoddily constructed bridge collapse on them. And I am supposed to believe that they single handedly control all the doctors in the land?<br /><br />Fat Chance. Doctors know vaccines work. Death from vaccines and permanent disability is so rare that I haven't heard of a single one. Not one.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">32. Many doctors argue that diseases during childhood are due to the body exercising its immune system. Suppressing these diseases causes the immune system to remain undeveloped causing the various autoimmune disorders like diabetes and arthritis that have become epidemics today.</span></i></blockquote>Which is why those western kids who don't exercise their immune systems are so weak and pitiful while Indian kids are so strong and healthy right? This argument seems to admit that vaccines work though...<br /><br />I would like to talk to these doctors who think "Diseases Exercise the Immune System". Mainly to note down their MCI numbers and have them drummed out of the institution since their argument is plain moronic and indicative of a complete lack of ability and knowledge. Your immune system does not function better the more you get sick. It's not a muscle.<br /><br />And yes, vaccination does not cause diabetes and arthritis. It does howeveer let you live long enough to get those lifestyle disorders.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">33. Vaccines suppress the natural immunity and the body does not have natural antibodies anymore. The mothers milk therefore does not contain natural antibodies and can no longer protect the child against illnesses.</span></i></blockquote>Vaccines function through the natural system of specific immunity and the antibodies produced by a vaccine and by the disease are indistinguishable from each other. Breast milk itself loses it's effectiveness over time since the baby's immune system detects the maternal antibodies and destroys them since they are foreign bodies. It's why the protection from it wanes.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">34. In the USA vaccine adverse effects are recorded and the Government offers compensation of millions of dollars to victims (the most recent case in its Vaccine Court may have received upto $200 million in damages). The Indian Government simply refuses to acknowledge that vaccines can cause deaths and permanent disability.</span></i></blockquote>Out of 8000 cases made to the Vaccine Court only 950 have recieved compensation and the system is a no-fault system. If you can prove that your child has a vaccine related side effect (as listed on the side of the box through testing) then you get money with relation to that. The majority of the major damages paid were to Hannah Poling who may have suffered damage due to possessing a rare mitochondrial disorder.<br /><br />The Indian government acknowledges that, however it knows that vaccination prevents more deaths and disabilities than the anti-vax lobby claims it causes. It's infact laughably moronic to be anti-vax in India since it requires a very selective blindness to all the dead children.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">35. It has been scientifically proven that vaccines cannot prevent disease. Vaccines try to create humoral (blood related immunity) whereas it has been found that immunity is developed at various levels, humoral as well as cellular. We still do not know enough about the human immune system and therefore should not interfere with it.</span></i></blockquote>This is just plain stupid. We know about immunology, there is an entire fucking field that we do research in. We know way more than Jagganath and his quacks. It's been scientifically proven that vaccines prevent diseases all over the bloody world when we made goddamn smallpox extinct. This isn't up for debate anymore, this is fact.<br /><br />The more anti-vax argue on this point the more stupid they sound. Non Specific immunity is not as powerful as the specific immune system because people without a specific immune system get sick really easily.<br /><br />That's what an AIDS patient is. He is an individual without a specific immune system. Surely by Jagganath's logic that patient would be perfectly fine right? It's only humoral immunity after all.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">36. In the USA parents are informed about vaccine after effects and their consent has to be taken before vaccinating their children. In India the Government assures the population through massive advertising campaigns that vaccines are extremely safe. Parents refusing to vaccinate are threatened by the administration.</span></i></blockquote>Ah yes bullshit merchants! Since vaccine side effects are mentioned before administration of the vaccine even in India... This is just an outright lie.<br /><br />You aren't threatened by the admin so much as exposed to real disease. Lot more vaccine preventable diseases are around in India and so it's a lot more easier for us to say I told you so.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">37. THERE IS NO SYSTEM OF TREATMENT TO TREAT A VACCINE DAMAGED CHILD. The parents have to run from one hospital to another. The Government turns a blind eye and refuses to even acknowledge the vaccine connection.</span></i></blockquote>Because everything Jagganath thinks is a connection is not, and I have seen vaccine side effects being treated and have treated them myself. (Things like rashes, fevers and chills). In India parents run from hospital to hospital as there is no complete healthcare system and everything is run in a patchwork system of public and private coverage. You would have to run from hospital to hospital if you thought you broke your foot too.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i>3<span style="font-size: x-small;">8. Medical doctors have challenged even the vaccines recommended by the Government of India. The BCG vaccine for tuberculosis has been extensively tested in India as long back as 1961 and found to be totally ineffective. The OPV is causing polio and other neurological and intestinal disorders in tens of thousands of Indian children. The Hep-B vaccine introduced recently is not meant for children at all, it is a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease that should be targeted only at promiscuous adults. The tetanus vaccine contains both aluminum and mercury besides the tetanus toxoid. The doctors themselves avoid the DPT as it is one of the most toxic vaccines ever devised. The measles vaccine is a vaccine that regularly causes severe adverse effects and the health workers want it out.</span></i></blockquote>In Tamil Nadu where the BCG vaccine was rolled out, TB has become so rare that when a TB positive case is seen you are immediately required to test for HIV. BCG mainly protects against variations on TB such as TB meningitis and miliary TB. I dealt with the OPV argument earlier. Hepatitis B vaccine is VITAL in halting the spread of a fairly terrible disease that can spread through horizontal transmission and vertical transmission. The tetanus vaccine protects against fucking tetanus and toxoid is a component and is different from a toxin. And I have been vaccinated with the DPT because Diptheria and Tetanus scare the everloving fuck out of me.<br /><br />Finally? No Fucking Healthcare Worker Wants the Measles Vaccine Out. Measles kills 60,000 children in India per year (half of the world's deaths to measles are in India). India has poorer measles vaccine coverage than Africa. It's got a long way to go in producing coverange and guess what? All sane healthcare workers want more vaccination with the vaccine. Maybe Jagganath hangs out with a bunch of quacks but the real workers want more of this vaccine that would save 60,000 lives per year.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-small;">&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">40. The pediatricians are introducing dubious vaccines in India, which are being opposed by the doctors, politicians, and public in American and European countries. The Rotavirus vaccine, Hib vaccine, HPV vaccine and the various multi various vaccines being introduced without any kind of testing is only because the vaccine manufacturers and the doctors administering them want to ensure a good income from them. They care two hoots about medical ethics and the fate of the children who will receive these vaccines. Vaccines containing nano particles and viruses and also plant based genetically honest doctors worldwide are opposing modified vaccines.</span></i></blockquote>Rotavirus vaccine would stop the biggest cause of infantile diarrhoea and therefore the biggest cause of child mortality in India. Haemophillus Influenza B vaccine would stop one of the biggest causes of meningitis. HPV would stop one of the biggest causes of cervical cancer which is one of the biggest causes of deaths in women. Many of these have been tested for a decade. Just not in India since the manufacturers of these are not Indian. Good income? The HPV vaccine costs $390... The cost of a single case of cervical cancer varies from thousands of dollars to thousands of dollars and sterility and loss of sexual function to death. Doctors in India make a killing because there are so many diseases.<br /><br />Medical ethics are all well and dandy for someone whose article is a tapestry of lies. And to my knowledge there are no "doctors" opposing vaccines. Only quacks.<br /><ol start="1" type="1"></ol><div class="MsoNormal"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://www.whale.to/vaccine/1000_offer.html" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">The above points are not all exhaustive. If after reading all this you still want to vaccinate your child, please go ahead. You deserve avaccine-damaged child.</span></b></span></a></blockquote></div><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Of course they aren't exhaustive! There is no depth to the well of Anti-Vax stupidity and I have long given up being amazed by their highly ludicrous arguments. I however am stating that if Jagganath Chaterjee wants to make up stupid challenges then I will be glad to take his money off him. I could do a lot of good with $90,000 and in return I am willing to place James Randi's Million Dollar Reward as a counter offer.<br /><br />The challenge Mr. Jagganath lists has different rules to the ones he has stated. Mr. Jagganath has CLEARLY stated that&nbsp;<i style="color: #783f04;">"</i></span></span><i style="color: #783f04;"><b>a $90,000+ (yes, US Dollar Ninety Thousand) award for any doctor who will&nbsp;drink a mixture containing the total&nbsp;quantum of toxins that are pushed into the childrens little bodies till the age of six in the name of "immunisation""</b></i>&nbsp;and so that is the challenge I will hold him to rather than the other challenge mentioned which is to drink something called a "weight adjusted dose of the collective toxins in vaccines which I assume is just anti-vax speech for if we combine the total volume of all vaccines and times it by your weight you will get poisoned by this higher amount because we think biology works by linear equation" .<br /><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />Yes, I will take all the vaccines that an Indian 6 year old has recieved and drink them if and only if Mr. Chaterjee proves that he has $90,000 for this challenge and comes down to witness me drink and indeed hands over the money personally. Because no one likes anyone who welshes out on deals now do they?</span></span></div></div>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/05/sometimes-while-poking-around-anti.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Avicenna)14th Ave, Shanthi Colony, Anna Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India13.082320796510572 80.21015167236328113.066854296510572 80.190410672363285 13.097787296510573 80.229892672363277tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-851309338610837402Thu, 29 Mar 2012 05:01:00 +00002012-03-29T01:01:42.250-04:00biologyimmunitysciencevaccinesEvolution and Vaccination - A destruction of an anti-vaccine argument<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><span style="font-size: small;">It's no secret that a lot of the anti-vaccine movement exists due to the ignorance of parents who need to make decisions with their child's healthcare. Anti-Vaccine portrays themselves as scientists when they are not often using acronyms and official sounding degrees and lab coats to make themselves seem like they are professionals.<br /><br />They work by creating unreasonable doubt and by portraying their qualifications as equal to a medic when in reality they generally follow incredibly outdated medical practices and ideas that are laughably out dated in a science that is moving at a pretty hefty pace. They lie and portray deadly diseases as "harmless" and easily controlled by nutrition, vitamins and magic water. <br /><br />They show a complete lack of understanding of statistics, probability and actual terminology and appeal to ideas like "souls", "harmony", "balance" and "energy". Words which mean very little in terms of the biochemical machine that is your body and are even more vague when one asks them to describe a medical condition.<br /><br />Today we deal with <a href="http://vactruth.com/2012/03/26/vaccine-resistant-pathogens/" target="_blank">Vactruth</a>'s article by Bunny St. Marie on Vaccine Resistant Pathogens. And it is basically a collection of incredibly daft ideas that need to be dismantled comprehensively lest I be accused of quote mining and taking ideas out of context.</span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><blockquote style="color: #783f04;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: small;">You would probably laugh at the absurdity of it—dangerous mutant invaders, seemingly by stealth, plotting a massive attack against the human race.</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">But, what if you discovered those mutants would be invisible to the naked eye? Would you still have a hard time believing such a story? Believe it or not, many scientists have begun warning us about that exact scenario, with one exception: Microscopic viruses and bacteria are actually playing the roles of the mutants.</span></blockquote></blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://images.wikia.com/warhammer40k/images/2/2e/Mutant_Mob.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="http://images.wikia.com/warhammer40k/images/2/2e/Mutant_Mob.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h4> <span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal;">Evil Mutants!</span></i></span></h4></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://img.tgdaily.com/sites/default/files/stock/wheat-production_0.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://img.tgdaily.com/sites/default/files/stock/wheat-production_0.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Real Mutants</i></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">Medically speaking we are all mutants. Every single goddamn one of us is a mutant and has at some point had a mutation. Using such language in a medical explanation is fraught with peril since we are confusing what the word mutant means.<br /><br />A mutant is any organism with a genetic variation from the fused original genome created at fertilisation. It can either be expressed as a local mutation (eg. Cancer) or a silent mutation (eg. Most People will probably have one cell with a silent mutation) or a germ line mutation (your kids will express a mutation.)<br /><br />The best example of a mutant is the good olde humble wheat plant. <br /><br />It's a single and simple mutation that made this plant one of the earliest domesticated crops and it's a mutation that's common to all crop plants. Tame wheat has a mutation that prevents it from spreading it's seeds. It does not shed it's seeds and they ripen on the plant. <br /><br />Now normally this is a massive disadvantage except, if there is a species out there that actively promotes this mutation. Spreading it across the world and actively killing individuals of this species that do not show the mutation. Now this mutation would be an advantage. Which is why there are more tame wheat plants out there than wild wheat. We actively protect wheat from predators, disease and spread the seeds hence the mutation is common.<br /><br />Not so scary now right? The usage of mutant is to scare the fuck out of people. It's a calculated accusation made by Bunny to scare people into thinking of these mutants as the twisted warped individuals because she is trying to imply that vaccination somehow causes mutation. And she does this with the grace and panache of a blancmange.</span><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://ultimate-wallpaper.com/media/wallpapers/photos/cache/1pCGWCNinjaTurtlesWallpaperMichelangelo_preview.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://ultimate-wallpaper.com/media/wallpapers/photos/cache/1pCGWCNinjaTurtlesWallpaperMichelangelo_preview.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>I like my mutants like I like my scotch, 13 - 18 years old, green and ninja.</i></span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The simple fact is this: You have been advised by your doctor to rely on vaccines as a defense against microscopic invaders.</i></span></blockquote><br /><span style="font-size: small;">We actually encourage a variety of defences against infection ranging from "Washing your hands" to "Vaccination" to "Pasteurisation" to "<a href="http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/seasonal/christmas/the-christmas-turkey-safety-guide" target="_blank">Cooking Your Goddamn Turkey</a>"</span><br /><br /><blockquote style="color: #783f04;"><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">But what happens when a pathogen manages to outsmart such pharmaceutical measures? We may be finding out sooner than expected. Here’s why.</span></blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">Pathogens such as bacteria and viruses cannot outsmart anything because they don't have brains. They are evolving. The mechanism of their evolution is random and driven by their massive reproduction rates. They aren't trying to "outsmart medical technology" they are doing so to survive. If they do not evolve they die. Smallpox is an example of a pathogen that didn't evolve. Polio is an example of one that probably won't evolve by the time we make it extinct. The nature of these viruses was to affect only humans and that specificity was both the reason for their success and the reason for why vaccination is so succesful against them.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then there were the recent measles outbreaks occurring in both the U.S.A. and Canada. Sporadic outbreaks of meningitis also have been reported around the globe over the last couple years. Just this year, an outbreak of meningitis was reported in the States. [1]</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">The recent measles outbreak in the USA is mainly seen in unvaccinated groups of people as the vaccination rate of both countries had dropped quite heftily due to the efforts of anti-vaccine and autism activists who believe in the MMR link. This produced a fairly hefty fall in vaccination rates allowing for the reoccurence of measles. <br /><br />A quick check shows that between 2007 to 2008 in the Israeli Measles outbreak majority affected were orthodox and hassidic jews who do not vaccinate. France's low measles vaccination rate resulted in roughly 7000 cases in the first three months of 2011. <br /><br />And lest we forget. Measles in the DRC has killed 1145 children due to the low vaccination and famine conditions but I am sure Bunny will blame the famine more than the vaccination rate and indeed claim that it's a perfectly harmless disease (If you are lucky enough to be born in the first world where fancy medicine prevents you from dying.)<br /><br />And the most telling statistic is that in 2011 the CDC stated that it had 118 cases. Of 118 cases, 105 were not vaccinated. (89%). The US outbreak is actually rather small since the anti-vaccination and the fear of MMR isn't as hefty as seen in the UK where there were are roughly a 1100 cases a year and rising due to the lack of vaccination due to anti-vaccine fear mongers. Every single case, more people who were unvaccinated were affected than those who were vaccinated. <br /><br />And this is without her first source which is from <a href="http://www.ktvz.com/news/30372892/detail.html" target="_blank">here</a>. The vaccine we give is for pneumococcus (Streptococcus Pneumoniae) which can cause meningitis. The outbreak is for meningococcus (Neisseria Meningitidis). They are entirely different diseases caused by entirely different bacteria. <br /><br />The issue that a lot of people have is the assumption that all bacteria are the same. The difference between these two bacteria is enormous. As wide an evolutionary gap as ant and human. They both belong to the kingdom of bacteria but diverge at the phylum level at a fundemental scale. Pneumococcus is a gram positive bacteria while Meningococcus is a gram negative bacteria. It may sound petty and small but it's a massive and monsterous difference to anyone who has read about microbiology. To mistake the two is not a fundemental error when dealing on organisms on this scale. It is idiocy. </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cTfipdp6Wbk/TeqO8HEGnVI/AAAAAAAABHw/puxabRAjb4g/s640/Strep_pneumoniae.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cTfipdp6Wbk/TeqO8HEGnVI/AAAAAAAABHw/puxabRAjb4g/s320/Strep_pneumoniae.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Streptococcus</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Neisseria_meningitidis_%28cropped%29.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Neisseria_meningitidis_%28cropped%29.png" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Neisseria</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;">These were both stained with the same staining method and the difference is clear as day since streptococcus forms violet chains of cocci while neisseria does not appearing as pink binary forms. But clearly Bunny didn't check any of this before making her fallacious claim.<br /><br />The meningococcus vaccine is a recent invention. It is being rolled out as we speak. We do really want a vaccine against this <a href="http://www.meningitis-angels.org/" target="_blank">horrific disease</a> and it's recent approval still means it hasn't been widely taken up and it isn't a compulsary vaccine yet.</span> <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">As a parent, you are told if your children are vaccinated they are ‘protected’; yet many of the outbreaks have occurred in fully immunized populations. So what’s going on? Some argue outbreaks may have originated from a foreign traveler or possibly from children whose parents chose to exempt them from vaccines. While others feel a far more worrying mechanism is at work. One possibility being common pathogens have mutated and not only become resistant to vaccines, but also potentially more deadly.</span></blockquote>No. Many of these outbreaks occured in populations where vaccination rates are shrinking and where many people have lapsed their vaccines or avoided boosters. And bear in mind the UK's "full vaccinated" rate of measles is the same as the DRC's mortality rate from measles and you quickly realise how effective vaccination really is. What Bunny has done is tried to portray the American Public as heavily vaccinated while failing to mention that most cases as reported by the CDC (which no doubt she refuses to trust) are from unvaccinated groups or from diseases that people haven't been vaccinated for. <br /><br />And a vaccine is not 100%. No one said it was. Nothing is 100%.. You can still catch a disease that you have been vaccinated for, it's just that it is a lot more unlikely than before. <br /><br />It's the equivalent of wearing bullet proof armour in a gun battle. Sure you may not get hit but why take the chance. It is the equivalent of not wearing a seatbelt in a car. Sure you may not get into an accident but why take the chance. You may not get measles but why risk it by not vaccinating. And the statistics were clear on this. At one point everyone got the measles. Not vaccinating will result in a re-establishment of rates. This much is clear in the UK where the number of cases has risen courtesy of the MMR/Autism link lobby and their arch-quack, Andrew Wakefield.<br /><br />Added to which pertussis is almost unheard of in children and mainly affects older adults and infants as pertussis immunity wears off rapidly even from natural infection (at the same rate as the vaccine) and adults don't keep up with booster shots. <br /><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">For example, a particular study published in 2010 mentions the rising increase of whooping cough cases may be caused in part to the use of acellular pertussis vaccines resulting in the adaptation of circulating pertussis strains. [2]</span></blockquote>Here Bunny shows a phenomenal ignorance of what the&nbsp;<a href="http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/16/2/08-1707_article.htm" target="_blank">scientific paper</a> is about. In her mind the vaccine somehow mutates the bacteria. <br /><br />What the study shows is the change in allele frequency in pertussis strains caused by vaccination. There are local antigenic variations and the pertussis vaccine that is currently used is the acellular vaccine (the Whole Cell Vaccine causes a bigger reaction but with greater side effects such as fever as the body recognises the whole bacteria and activates a proper immune response). The acellular vaccine has a lower effectiveness rate (around 75% to 85%) but is preferred due to it's safety profile.<br /><br />Now what occured here is that various antigens of the most common strains were used in the vaccine to protect against them. Thus leaving the least common strains partially protected or with no protection at all. This results in a prevention of infection by the most common strains which quickly reduce while the least common ones are not affected as much until we reach the situation where the previous common strains have become rarer. As seen in the case wher MT70's incidence drops below MT10 in the UK due to MT70's usage in the vaccine.<br /><br />What Bunny is demonstrating is a phenomenal ignorance of how evolution works. You don't evolve to meet a threat. You evolve over generations rather&nbsp; than as a single individual and if you can survive a change of environment you survive, if you cannot you go extinct. What we see here is allele frequency alteration due to the arrival of the vaccine and the reduction in possible prey for the common strain.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">Another study led by Dr. Frits Mooi suggests whooping cough vaccines are becoming less effective due to certain strains of pertussis adapting, and that these emerging new strains are likely more virulent. Indeed, the epidemiologic data found an association between these new strains and an increased infant mortality rate. [3]</span></blockquote><a href="http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/8/08-1511_article.htm" target="_blank">This study into virulence</a> is quite interesting. Basically it boils down to comparing two of the common strains of pertussis and some astute observations. It basically looks at the allele frequency changes of Pertussis Toxin 1 vs Pertussis Toxin 3. <br /><br />Now basically Pertussis Toxin is not normally excreted by the bacteria. There is a disadvantage to wanton usage possibly a negative metabolic effect making toxin 3 rarer pre-vaccine. The paper mentions this. However in a host they both produce the toxin. However after vaccination the incidence of pertussis toxin 1 went down while toxin 3 went up. The net number of cases fell but there were still incidents. <br /><br />The paper points out that those with Toxin 3 are more virulent than Toxin 1. Not virulent enough to affect a fully healthy adult with a vaccine but sufficient to create a latent or silent infection. And then he points out what the cause of the increased rate of infection is.<br /><br />Dr. Mooi points out that the main reason for this is PTx 3 has a immunosuppresant effect and in order to overcome this increased virulence the body requires a longer period of time to produce the necessary antibodies allowing for the potential spread due to the increased efficacy of the toxin and the increased production. PTx 1's lower virulence means that it is much more easily killed off by the immune system. Dr. Mooi points out that the rise in PTx3 has three main causes. <br /><br />Firstly, vaccine quality varies across the board. The quality of vaccine varies. He recommends that vaccine quality be improved as he noted that recently vaccinated children do not catch pertussis of either type. Their immune system responds heavily.<br /><br />Secondly, the current vaccines do not produce antibodies against PTx3 and it's increased anti-immune effect. Addition of antigens from PTx3 and 1 would improve the vaccines.<br /><br />Thirdly, adult vaccination is low and most adults are partially immunised resulting in longer response times and spread of PTx3 allele variants. <br /><br />In short? Improve the Goddamn Vaccine and get adults boosters is this man's conclusion. Bunny's is Do Not Vaccinate At All. Fuck the half a million or so people a year the Pertussis vaccine saves. We shouldn't vaccinate at all! That way we can lose more children to the disease (roughly 80% of pertussis cases are in the 0-5 age group) and not have to worry about an increased virulence that means nothing to someone who is vaccinated. Never mind the fact that we can prevent this by improving vaccination. <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">What’s even more shockin</span><span style="font-size: small;">g is, according to the CDC, vaccinated children may actually be putting vulnerable loved ones at risk! A study published in 2000 found that vaccinated children are not only at risk for contracting pertussis after 4 to 5 years, but also may play a role in transmitting pertussis to vulnerable loved ones via asymptomatic (or silent) infection. [4]</span></div></blockquote>The <a href="http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/5/00-0512_article.htm" target="_blank">natural immunity for pertussis</a> also wanes after 4 to 5 years. This is why we use booster shots. If you miss your boosters you can spread the disease. You don't gain a life long immunity from pertussis and we specifically mention that you do not gain such an immunity and require regular boosters in order to remain immune.<br /><br />And it does point out that the reduced immunity in those who were vaccinated but missed boosters and recommends booster shots. <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">This isn’t an isolated problem with pertussis, either. Scientists also speculate about measles becoming resistant to vaccines.</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">This isn't a resistance to vaccines so much as a very minor latent infection rather than coughing so hard you break a rib. The problem is Bunny is embellishing the truth. Basically? Pertussis (a bacteria) has had an allele frequency shift to a more virulent allele PTx3 which provides better spread due to it's more toxic nature. This produces latent infections which spread in the short period of time it takes to mobilise an immune response and is mainly seen in vaccinated adults who lack the full vaccine and can be corrected via the introduction of the PTx3 antigen to the acellular vaccine and by keeping up regular booster shots even in adults to prevent the spread of this latent infection (sub-clinical) to infants. <br /><br />Now here is the thing. A tiny experiment. Go get a bottle of coke and a white sheet of paper. Take a small mouthful. Now cough before you swallow. Aim it at a white sheet of paper. Notice the massive spray of coke on the white sheet. <br /><br />Now imagine a disease spread by coughing. For example... Pertussis. Can anyone tell me why sub clinical pertussis with no cough is less likely to spread as much and as far than pertussis with a cough? <br /><br />I am sure anyone can because we regularly deal with the Rhinovirus (cold). We know that it spreads via cough and via the air yet Bunny clearly thinks pertussis spread remains the same in such a situation. </span><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">A research team led by Dr. Claude Muller from the National Health Laboratory in Luxembourg has reported circulating strains of measles in Africa developing a significant level of resistance to the vaccines currently being used. [5]</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1273613.stm" target="_blank">This</a>&nbsp; article specifically says in the first few lines that the reason why resistant strains develops is poor vaccination. This is traditional anti-vaccine failure of written comprehension to go with their incredibly shoddy grasp of mathematics and their even worse grasp of science. The resistance is being caused by people like Bunny and her anti-vaccine movement. <br /><br />Mainly her more deadly ilk like those alternative medicine practitioners in Africa who fight against local vaccination schemes. I must point out again the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that of the UK are roughly the same at around 60 million and the UK has a rather high measles rate of around 1100 cases a year while the DRC with it's patch vaccination has one where the mortality alone is around 1000 cases a year with nearly 100,000 cases a year. This article only emphasises that the actual problem in Africa and indeed places like the UK is the anti-vaccine stance with particular emphasis on the uptake of the MMR vaccine. </span><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">But the evidence of morphing pathogens doesn’t end there. A new study has implicated evolving bacteria with the emergence of vaccine-resistant pneumococcus strains, the same bacteria responsible for causing pneumonia and meningitis infections. [6]</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">Actually... If you read the article it points out that this isn't an effect of the vaccine but a quirk of the bacteria which produces resistance to normal immune systems which is why you can repeatedly get infected from pneumococcus. This is a normal occurrence that the bacteria does even when there is no vaccination.This isn't even the same things as the other things. This is goddamn conjugation which is an entirely different process from the previous allele frequency changes. This is best explained via the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_factor" target="_blank">fertility factor</a>.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">And this specific issue has more to do with antibiotic immunity than vaccine resistance. And this is where Bunny plows on. </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp; </span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">These troubling findings are very reminiscent of concerns that were raised after the over-prescribing of antibiotics. Scientists warned early on that over-use and failing to finish ones prescription could lead to bacterial resistance. [7]</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">No. These are nothing like the overprescription of antibiotics. Vaccines function by priming your immune system by mimicking an infection without the negative effect. Antibiotics work by affecting bacteria directly. And yes... failing to finish your prescription can lead to resistance but guess which group of people routinely tell people to quit taking antibiotics. It's certainly the group of people whose only qualification is that they managed to have a child and who assume that this landmark achievement allows them insight into the function of a human being that medical personnel do not. </span><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">Many years later, after the emergence of antibiotic resistant super-bugs like MRSA, both physicians and patients are now beginning to re-examine their approach to illness. Isn’t this similar to what is happening with vaccines? Consider this. Americans are the most vaccinated population in the world.</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">Actually. We can treat MRSA. Vancomycin, Ceftroline, linezolid, Daptomycin and Teicoplanin all show activity against MRSA and combination therapies show a lot of effect. In addition we have two new classes of antibiotics (over Linezolid) undergoing testing including a 5th generation cephalosporin, dalbavancin, iclaprim and neomonacin.<br /><br />In addition we are looking into defensin - 1, cannabinoids, platensimycin and hydrogen peroxide dressings. Oh and we are also looking into phage therapy which is entering human trial stages and shows a 95% effectiveness rating.<br /><br />So yeah. We do cure MRSA, it mainly harms people who are heavily sick (And no it's not hospital acquired. 85% of cases come from outside the hosptial) or have conditions like diabetes where their high blood sugar helps the bacteria grow.<br /><br />The physician's re-examination of methodology due to MRSA is the use of multiple drugs to treat diseases and insisting that the patient finishes their antibiotics and not listen to anti-medical luddites. The argument being made is that we shouldn't have treated all those sore throats</span><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here’s the shocking reality: Children following the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule will be injected with approximately 115 vaccine antigens, and that’s just within the first two years of life! [8]</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">Oh my! Antigens! 115 of them! An antigen is mainly made up of proteins and polysaccharides and their associations with each other and with lipids and nucleic acid. These are any such substance recognised by the body's immune system.<br /><br />Within seconds after birth the baby's immune system is exposed to thousands of antigens in the bacteria of the world. Within an hour it has taken it's first feed and is exposed to millions of antigens in the milk of it's mother. The colostrum or first milk is laden with antibodies. These antibodies are however foreign to the baby and are recognised as such and destroyed. The baby begins to produce antibodies to these antibodies. There are millions of them in each feed the baby takes. <br /><br />Every single surface, every single touch and every single breath of air contains bacteria and viruses that the baby is exposed to in the thousands at best and you really thing 115 antigens over 2 years means anything? Our immune system deals with assaults on it every second. A 115 antigens is nothing in one go. This is spread out over two years. And indeed this ignores all the repeat doses. It's a very naive approach to the issue and assumes that our body can only deal with one pathogen at a time. The way immune systems work particularly when vaccines are involved is that they process all the antigens simultaneously. Since there is no pathogen load to worry about there is no disease and the body is not strained. Basically? Macrophgages consume the antigens and present them to naive T-Cells which produce a variety of antigen equivalent antibodies. When a match is found the body shifts to producing that type of T-Cell which produces the necessary antibodies. Some of these T-Cells will remain after as memory cells which reactivate in infection and rapidly flood the system with antibodies if the antigen is detected. This isn't a conveyor belt. <br /><br />Often in a real infection the infective bacteria will produce multiple antigens and the body will produce multiple antibodies to these. By Bunny's logic we wouldn't be able to cope with such an event. </span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: small;">In my opinion, this is an outrageous amount. Similar to over-prescribing antibiotics, it seems logical to step back and evaluate the consequences of such a thing as over-vaccination, and whether vaccination mandates are truly achieving the desired effects, or whether our children are slowly falling prey to newly emerging forms of historical illnesses.</span></blockquote>In Bunny's Opinion comprehension is not a valid skill and neither is a basic grasp of science or mathematics. In her opinion as a lay person? In her opinion as someone who doesn't understand medicine at all? In her opinion as an individual who cannot explain how disease spreads? Or how immune systems work? Pray explain why should we take her opinion on the subject matter? <br /><br />I wouldn't dream of telling NASA how to do their job. You would have to be a madman to ask me to fix your car, and I would have to be just as mad to claim that I could fix it. I know my limitations as a human being. It's why I would hire a plumber if my plumbing went wrong. It's why I prefer my house to be wired up by an electrician rather than some yahoo who claims to know what he is doing. And it's why taking medical advice to someone whose only qualification is that she has achieved something that most women of the planet will achieve is incredibly stupid. <br /><br />It is people like her who are guilty of the foolishness of <a href="http://a-million-gods.blogspot.in/2012/02/speaking-as-mother-anti-vaccine.html" target="_blank">Speaking as a Mother</a>. Her assumption is that being a parent grants you innate knowledge of human biology and medicine which entitles her to speak on the subject. And it irks me since she is surrounded by a coven of sycophants who basically feed her delusion that she can make healthcare decisions regarding her children without any grasp of the subject material. Actually, it's her children. For all I care she can believe in all the magic water and fairy wings she likes as long as it's just them she is screwing over. What irks me the most? Is that she is considered a voice of healthcare when she cannot tell the difference between a gram negative and gram positive bacteria and that she is encouraged to stand up and give medical advice that she will never ever be held responsible for. If you follow her advice and your child falls sick or dies then there is nothing you can do. She is not responsible for her stupidity. It's not her that pays the butcher's bill, it's people like your doctor who have to clean up her mess when things go wrong. <br /><br />People like Bunny St. Marie only exists because vaccines eliminated major diseases making them a thing of the past. To her they are as legendary as dragons. Only diseases are real and still are around and they can come back if our vaccination rate drops sufficiently as we have seen across Europe. Her advice is functionally detrimental to your health. It is encouraging you to face down dragons by being a virgin, wrapping yourself up in meat and barbeque sauce while wearing wooden armour soaked in oil.&nbsp; <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.shmoop.com/media/images/large/beowulf-dragon.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.shmoop.com/media/images/large/beowulf-dragon.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Your survival rate goes up if you are two days from retirement.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/evolution-and-vaccination-destruction.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Avicenna)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-8252231539910929995Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:21:00 +00002012-03-16T17:21:00.102-04:00outbreakpertussisvaccineswhooping coughThe Vaccine Times: Whooping Cough outbreak sickens over 140 people in CanadaWe all know that Canada is just one of those third world nations with no infrastructure and no access to any health care what so ever, right?&nbsp; Right? Well, <a href="http://www.vaccinetimes.com/whooping-cough-outbreak-sickens-over-140-people-in-canada/" target="_blank">The Vaccine Times</a> found this gem that I wanted to pass along.<br /><span class="post-format-icon"></span><span class="updated" title="2012-03-01T09:45:29+00:00"></span> <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="entry-container fix"> <div class="entry fix"> <div class="first-para" style="text-align: justify;">A <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pertussis" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Pertussis">whooping cough</a> outbreak in British Columbia, Canada has sickened<a href="http://www.world-first.co.uk/home/travel-insurance/medical-problems/canadian-whooping-cough-warning$44160.aspx"> more than 140 people since December</a>, prompting&nbsp;Canadian&nbsp;Health authorities to issue a warning.&nbsp;Hotspots &nbsp;include the Fraser Valley, Hope, Chilliwack and Agassiz areas. If you are traveling to the area make sure you have received your <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booster_dose" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Booster dose">booster shot</a>, and especially if traveling with children make sure they are up-to-date with their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DPT_vaccine">DTaP vaccine</a>. Pertussis can be <a href="http://www.vaccinetimes.com/vaccine-preventable-suffering/" target="_blank">particularly dangerous if caught by a young child</a>, especially a baby who hasn’t had a chance to be vaccinated yet.</div><h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">Related articles</h6><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://r.zemanta.com/?u=http%3A//www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/02/23/bc-whooping-cough-fraser-valley.html%3Fcmp%3Drss&amp;a=77135839&amp;rid=806de912-da9d-4a43-9ca6-755a319c19de&amp;e=888bd00042d97e899aa890806e750e39" target="_blank">Whooping cough spreading in B.C.’s Fraser Valley</a> (cbc.ca)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1136175--spread-of-whooping-cough-in-fraser-valley-spurs-call-for-vaccinations" target="_blank">Spread of whooping cough in Fraser Valley spurs call for vaccinations</a> (thestar.com)</li></ul></div></div></blockquote>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/vaccine-times-whooping-cough-outbreak.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-1234705786889798088Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:10:00 +00002012-03-14T17:10:00.698-04:00accuracyautismhistorysciencevaccinesThe Vaccine Times: There isn’t a single study on the cumulative effects of……A very interesting post recently at <a href="http://www.vaccinetimes.com/there-isnt-a-single-study-on-the-cumulative-effects-of/" target="_blank">The Vaccine Times</a> reporting on an early result from a study.&nbsp; I highly suggest you check out the linked Steve Novella link as well.&nbsp; This is from a neurologist, and the study results are about neurology after all!&nbsp; Just be glad the science takes a rigorous approach and actually comes to defensible conclusions about the world around us as opposed to finger pointing and wild speculation. <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="first-para" style="text-align: justify;">Recently a <a href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/AJP/PAP/appi.ajp.2011.11091447.pdf" target="_blank">new study</a> came out which suggested that changes to the brains of autistic children might be detectable as early as 6 months of age. Steve Novella has covered this particular study<a href="http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/the-autistic-brain-at-6-months/" target="_blank"> at his Neurologica blog</a> so there is no need to repeat what he said there. Predictably, the anti-vaccination crowd has come out restating their belief that vaccinations are still to blame. Now, to be fair <b>nothing in this study proves that vaccines cannot cause, or have any effect on, autism</b>. All it says is that it may be possible to notice differences in the brain as early as 6 months of age, and even at that it does not provide a diagnostic tool, due to its size (92 infants) and limitations. It certainly points to an interesting direction, but I do not believe any strong conclusions can be drawn from it.</div></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: justify;">If the results can be replicated in larger studies though, it would certainly lay to rest one of the myths about vaccines and autism, namely the one that maintains that vaccines given at or around the age of 2 cause autism, i.e. it would exonerate the MMR vaccine for example. But that is not what I wish to deal with today. What I do wish to deal with today is the common anti-vaccine conundrum that “<i>there isn’t a single study on the cumulative effects of vaccines on (fill in the blank)</i>“. You will always hear this from the anti-vaccine crowd, especially when the topic of autism is being discussed. Superficially it seems to make sense, after all if we’re giving vaccines to children why shouldn’t we test if in the cumulative they cause autism? </div></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: justify;">The problem is, of course, that there are thousands of afflictions that one could choose to blame vaccines for, and then turn around and ask why a cumulative study of the effects of the vaccination schedule on that particular affliction has not been done. The list could include, but not be limited to:</div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>Nearsightedness</li><li>Farsightedness</li><li>Cancer (all types)</li><li>Diabetes</li><li>Bone breakage</li><li>Deafness</li><li>Blindness</li><li>Heart problems</li><li>Lung problems</li><li>Kidney failure</li><li>and on, and on, and on</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">I wish to be clear that I do not mean to make light of the seriousness of autism as a disorder. The point is that we could pick literally hundreds of things to blame on vaccines and demand cumulative studies to be done, and maintain the vaccines are to blame until said studies are done, effectively perpetually moving the goal post so that vaccines are never considered “good enough”. Even the most strident anti-vaccine activist has to concede that research money is limited and we cannot possibly run studies about everything, so a certain level of plausibility must be established <b>before</b> studies of this magnitude are to be undertaken.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.vaccinetimes.com/there-isnt-a-single-study-on-the-cumulative-effects-of/" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: large;">CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST. </span></b></a></div>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/vaccine-times-there-isnt-single-study.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-5135941055866370316Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:09:00 +00002012-03-12T17:09:00.174-04:00deathmeningitisvaccinesIvory Coast: Meningitis outbreak kills 11 during first three days of FebruaryThis particular article highlights why organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, and the like are so important!&nbsp; It doesn't matter if these people are in a distant nation, or are poor, or whatever the case may be.&nbsp; They are still people, and having people suffer and die from something that is preventable is a crime.&nbsp; And this doesn't only happen in third world countries.&nbsp; Meningitis also happens in the US, especially in places where a lot of people live together, such as at a university.&nbsp; And this $5 shot absolutely nets "big pharma" much less than the $250,000 course of treatment for meningitis...&nbsp; Just get vaccinated already.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">There have been 40 cases of meningitis reported in four departments across the Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) during the first three days of February 2012, including 11 fatalities.<br />The outbreak reported Friday has caused people to seek out vaccinations for their families.<br />According to an Integrated Regional Information Networks report:<br /><blockquote>The ministry of health has declared the outbreaks in the Kouto and Tengrela regions as epidemics, and are providing free vaccinations in both locations through mobile health teams.<br /> They are achieving this with the help of the World Health Organization and UNICEF.<br /> </blockquote>The report also notes that the cost for the meningitis vaccine costs $5 USD for and $3 for groups in the cities of Saminkro and Kani. The costs are too much for many families, which has caused them to lobby for cheaper vaccines.<br />However, as Jeremie Ipo, director of the district health centre in the village of Poungbè in Korhogo region notes that the cost is based on economics, “We can only reduce the price of the vaccine as soon as there are enough people demanding it.”</blockquote><div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.examiner.com/infectious-disease-in-national/ivory-coast-meningitis-outbreak-kills-11-during-first-three-days-of-february" target="_blank">CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.</a></b></span></div>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/ivory-coast-meningitis-outbreak-kills.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-8119057344847781483Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:02:00 +00002012-03-10T17:02:00.640-05:00sciencevaccinesUnderstanding How Vaccines WorkThe <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/spec-grps/hcp/downloads/vacsafe-understand-color-office.pdf" target="_blank">CDC has an excellent pamphlet</a> that everyone should read!&nbsp; It basically explains how vaccines work without getting too technical (a danger that people who have to fight <i>for </i>reality all too often fall into, because reality <i>is </i>complicated).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/spec-grps/hcp/downloads/vacsafe-understand-color-office.pdf"><img border="1" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SP3WpGxJFmc/T1O7YxUHFyI/AAAAAAAAANs/3K4p4-nCEdk/s320/CDCPamplet.jpg" /></a></div><br />Click the image to go to the actual CDC Pamphlet.&nbsp; I do love a line right from the pamphlet (emphasis mine):<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Vaccines greatly reduce the risk of infection by <i>working with the body’s natural defenses</i> to safely develop immunity to disease."</blockquote>Funny how this seems to be missed by the anti-vax pro-disease nutters...http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/understanding-how-vaccines-work.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-2425869961607327031Thu, 08 Mar 2012 23:51:00 +00002012-03-08T18:51:00.422-05:00informationscienceA Photon in the Darkness: It's NaturalHow often has some wooish person told you to take something, or adhere to something because it's "natural".&nbsp; This (and chemical free) are a couple of my pet peeves.&nbsp; Not because they are particularly wooish, but because they expose the blatant ignorance, and poor education of the wooist caught up in this particular brand of delusion.&nbsp; <a href="http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=252" target="_blank">A Photon in the Darkness</a> also has an encounter with this type of woo that makes for a good story:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h1><a href="http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=252" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to It’s Natural!">It’s Natural!</a></h1><h2>January 25th, 2012</h2>I think I need to switch radio stations.<br />If you remember, last summer, the station I was listening to on my weekly drive to Downstate Univ. was carrying advertisements for a pseudo-study of a “natural” remedy for “low testosterone”. Lately, the same station has&nbsp;been bombarding me with ads for a “natural” way for post-menopausal women to&nbsp;”restore hormonal balance”. This “hormonal balance”, we are told, will not only eliminate the hot flashes and other problems of menopause, it will allow us to “eliminate that stubborn belly fat”. On top of that, the advertisement assures us that it is “natural” (Note: so&nbsp;are hemlock,&nbsp;tetanus and dying in childbirth).<br />Up to now, I&nbsp;have&nbsp;dealt with this by&nbsp;simply changing the station, but I recently had a friend tell me that she had started this “natural” remedy in an attempt to&nbsp;”restore hormonal balance” (and, I suspect, to get rid of her “stubborn belly fat”, although neither of us brought <em>that</em> up). She was quite enthusiastic about the remedy, although on closer questioning she admitted that the hot flashes hadn’t gotten&nbsp;<em>much</em> better, although she was positive they were “less intense”, if just as frequent as before.<br />What finally got me out of my “if you can’t say something nice…” reticence, though, was when she told me that she felt this “natural” remedy was vastly superior to the hormonal replacements her doctor and she had discussed (and decided against). And those of you who have read my ‘blog before can probably guess why…<br /><blockquote> <div style="text-align: left;"><em>“It’s natural!”</em></div></blockquote>Cautiously, I asked her a few questions. First, I asked her if she knew what was <em>in </em>the pills she was taking; she didn’t,</blockquote><a href="http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=252" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST. </span></b></a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/photon-in-darkness-its-natural.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-454635917482476646Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:44:00 +00002012-03-06T18:44:00.553-05:00autismhealth-careinsuranceA Photon in the Darkness: Autism and InsuranceI have been very negligent in posting lately, so I plan on setting quite a few posts up in the queue in order to pass along some information to you all.&nbsp; This particular post from "Prometheus" at the <a href="http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=250" target="_blank">A Photon in the Darkness blog</a> seems rather appropriate, even though the date of the post is a bit out of date.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h1><a href="http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=250" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Autism and Insurance: Myths vs Reality">Autism and Insurance: Myths <em>vs</em> Reality</a></h1><h2>December 22nd, 2011</h2>Earlier this week, I had arranged to have coffee with a close friend of mine. When I arrived, she was holding a copy of the weekend edition of the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> and was quite upset about an article&nbsp;on the “Affordable Care Act” (”Obama-care”). In this article, it was mentioned that the department of Health and Human Services was planning to leave it up to the various states whether or not to mandate “autism treatment” coverage. This, she felt, was a cruel blow to families with autistic children. Fortunately, I had been through this all before, many years ago, when my child was first diagnosed with autism, so I had some perspective to offer.<br />Back in those dark days, we were casting about for something, <em>anything</em> to do to help our child, even to the point of attending a “DAN! conference”. In that “conference” (it was more like a revival meeting than a conference), we heard repeated, over and over, that health insurance plans would not pay for anything related to autism, the dreaded “299.0″ (ICD-9 code for autism). As I later recalled, this “fact” was most often mentioned by practitioners who offered “alternative” treatments for autism.<br />Shortly after returning from that “conference”, I had the opportunity to question (”interrogate” might&nbsp;describe the flavour of that exchange better) our paediatrician about that point. He was - and is - an exceptionally patient person and managed to answer my question <em>without</em> adressing my obvious hostility.<br />As he explained it, the insurance companies look over each bill and ensure that - among other things - that the procedural code (CPT codes) matches up with the diagnostic code. They want to ensure that a doctor isn’t claiming reimbursement for an appendectomy when the diagnosis is “bunion”, for example. For this reason, chelation and HBOT aren’t “approved” for autism because - as I’ve outlined in several ‘blog postings - they haven’t been shown to be effective in the treatment of autism, just as appendectomy hasn’t been shown to be an effective treatment for bunions.<br />Other issues that arise, especially in the “alternative” treatment of autism, are when the “treatment” is either&nbsp;of questionable effectiveness, such as “Applied Behavioral Analysis”, or its effectiveness has not been demonstrated. Insurance companies usually see these as “experimental” treatments and refuse to pay for them.<br />However, parents have also complained that they are unable to get insurance companies to pay for “mainstream” therapies, such as speech therapy and psychiatric consultation when the diagnosis was “autism”. This, according to our patient paediatrician, is due to the ignorance of the practitioner. There is no universal treatment for “autism” - it is too broad and heterogenous a diagnosis for that. So, to justify - for example - speech therapy, <em>another</em> diagnosis is needed, since the diagnosis of “autism” does not, in itself, imply a need for (or benefit from) speech therapy. Experienced and well-trained practitioners are aware of this requirement and so don’t <em>submit</em> bills that don’t have proper justification for the prescribed (or recommended) therapies.<br />When I later questioned some of the parents who had complained about having insurance companies refuse to pay for “autism”-related treatments, I found that&nbsp;a few things&nbsp;kept cropping up:</blockquote><a href="http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=250" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">READ THE REST OF THE POST HERE. </span></b></a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/photon-in-darkness-autism-and-insurance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-4083422760039477192Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:17:00 +00002012-03-04T17:17:00.121-05:00medianewsvaccinesActual News Story on VaccinesIsn't it sad when a media outlet that most Americans would have a visceral revulsion to actually carries news that is much more factually correct, and doesn't give in to the false "both sides" fallacy when it comes to vaccines?&nbsp; There is a reason that whenever the anit-vax pro-disease nutters have one of their "experts" on, they are generally either not an actual doctor, or they are discredited because of their non-reality based practices.<br /><br /><center><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="270" id="flashObj" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="flashVars" value="videoId=1443884726001&linkBaseURL=http%3A%2F%2Faje.me%2FwQVAOj&playerID=664965303001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAmtVJIFk~,TVGOQ5ZTwJZbyLu770YWZ_LE4OaoU5Nv&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /> <param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /> <param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /> <embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=1443884726001&linkBaseURL=http%3A%2F%2Faje.me%2FwQVAOj&playerID=664965303001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAmtVJIFk~,TVGOQ5ZTwJZbyLu770YWZ_LE4OaoU5Nv&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="480" height="270" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object></center>With apologies to Tim Minchin: You know what you call alternative medicine that works? Medicine!http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/actual-news-story-on-vaccines.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-6838988883225703965Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:19:00 +00002012-03-04T12:19:31.021-05:00mathmeaslesvaccinesHarpocrates Speaks: Of Maths and MeaselsWhen it comes to loony causes, I have to rank the anti-vax pro-disease nutters as some of the looniest...&nbsp; And a good tell-tale signal that a cause is loony is the level of deception that they will use to twist and distort facts.&nbsp; The creationists are a good example of this.&nbsp; However, Todd W. has written a great article about the way that the pro-disease anti-vaxers seem to try to abuse math to support their lies.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h3 class="post-title entry-title"> <a href="http://silencedbyageofautism.blogspot.com/2012/02/of-maths-and-measles.html">Of Maths and Measles</a></h3>There are times that I really despair for our country. Specifically, the educational system troubles me from time to time. Take simple mathematics, as an example. By the time one graduates high school and becomes a, presumably, productive adult in our society, regardless of whether said individual goes on to college or jumps right into the workforce, there are certain simple skills that they should have. All the basics should be well in hand: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. They should have a good understanding of decimals, fractions and percentages. Even if someone needs to use a calculator, rather than doing it in their head or scratching a problem out on paper, they should at least have an understanding of how these things work and how to use them.<br /><br />This woe for the state of education came bubbling up again as I read <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/02/measles-outbreak-in-indiana.html#comment-444825741" target="_blank">a comment</a> on <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/02/measles-outbreak-in-indiana.html" target="_blank">a PBS article</a> about the measles outbreak in Indiana. Allie Morris, the author of the article, wrote that at least 13 of the individuals who had contracted measles had a history of MMR vaccine refusal. The commenter, Mmavallet, couldn't believe this number, suggesting that it was statistically impossible for there to be 13 individuals who were all unvaccinated, coupled with a belief that the vaccine couldn't be 95% effective (it's not, BTW, being &gt;99% effective):<br /><blockquote>I don't buy that all 13 people spread over various counties were all unvaccinated. And the MMR does not have a 95% efficacy rate or else you wouldn't be having these outbreaks in a population where 98% of people vaccinate. It's statistically impossible. If you really research the numbers on these outbreaks, about 50% of those infected are vaccinated! If they really worked, you wouldn't have to continually get revaccinated for the same illness. It's not immunity if it wears off...only natural immunity is permanent.</blockquote>Let's take a closer look at the issue, shall we?<br /><a href="" name="more"></a><br />Basically, the problem involves figuring out a couple of fractions and percentages. We might all remember story problems asking us to figure out that X is what percentage of Y? Or, alternatively, X is Z percent of what? And yet another variation, what is Z percent of Y? This can be boiled down into a simple equation:<br /><blockquote><b>X/Y = %/100</b></blockquote>To address this individual's comment, we would need to start with a few basic assumptions. First, that the vaccine is 95% effective (we'll do this with a 99% figure, as well). Second, we need to know about how virulent measles is; in other words, what percentage of vulnerable people would be infected if exposed? According to the CDC, <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/transmission.html" target="_blank">that attack rate is about 90%</a>. Finally, we need to know what the approximate uptake rate is for the vaccine. The commenter claims that 98% of individuals in the area vaccinate. We'll use that number for our calculations.</blockquote><a href="http://silencedbyageofautism.blogspot.com/2012/02/of-maths-and-measles.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE. </span></b></a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/03/harpocrates-speaks-of-maths-and-measels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-7417387384276019435Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:49:00 +00002012-01-20T08:50:09.924-05:00vaccinesStupidest Weapon Ever<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div>We medical business types have unleashed our latest weapon against the puny humans who inhabit the USA. The&nbsp;<a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/034696_rabies_vaccines_airdrop_Texas.html" target="_blank">Rabies Bomb!</a>&nbsp;</div><br />I don't even know where to start about the fears over this nonsense from usual suspect Mike Adams the health ranger.<br /><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://drmcninja.com/comics/2012-01-20-23p28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://drmcninja.com/comics/2012-01-20-23p28.jpg" width="275" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Health Rangers are no match for my<br />swarthy tan and luchadore skills!</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>The article is a fine collection of anti-vax lunacy at it's finest. All the right ingredients are there, there is the conspiracy theory of the medical industry producing weird and wonderful weapons to defeat it's enemy. There is the collusion of a shadowy cabal. And there is the plan which is frankly insane.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><span style="background-color: white;">The weaponization of vaccines just took another leap forward in America with the recent air-dropping of rabies vaccines by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Using a battery of small planes based out of Del Rio, Texas recently dropped&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: white;">1.8 million edible vaccine packets&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: white;">over 7,700 square miles of rural Texas.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white;">The packets contain edible rabies vaccines dipped in fish oil and coated with fish meal to entice foxes and coyotes to eat them. Once consumed, the animal is "vaccinated" against rabies, researchers claim.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white;">Of course, what these researchers don't yet understand in their scientific ignorance (and arrogance) is that they are also engaged in a&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: white;">rabies DNA / RNA bombardment&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: white;">of Texas.</span></i></blockquote>The price of a single vaccine is around $60, the price of a single cluster bomblet is $60... Do you know what's more effective than dropping rabies RNA (there is no rabies DNA on the basis of the virus is an RNA virus)...<br /><br />In addition the vaccine being used is the V-RG (Recombinant Vaccine) which is often used in wildlife drops to reduce rabid animals in the wild. The virus is vaccinia (spreads cowpox not rabies) with rabies glycoproteins being expressed on their protein coat. Meaning it is harmless to animals and humans and that there is no rabies RNA in the vaccine.<br /><br />Thus making it the absolute worst weapon ever. Do you know what's more dangerous? Taking 10 dollars worth of 1 cent coins, melting them down into a block and hurling that at people. I am sure we could kill or injure more people that way than burning our money on $60 worth of fancy viruses that don't even kill humans. Since when have we been so incompetent? The only way this could injure someone is if some moron choked on it.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><span style="background-color: white;">The Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation has already conducted bizarre experiments on&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: white;">genetically engineered mosquitoes that carry vaccines&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: white;">to be silently injected into unsuspecting humans. And that same foundation has also invested heavily in&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: white;">covert vaccination technology&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: white;">that could, for example, vaccinate you with a spray mist used at airport security checkpoints</span></i></blockquote>Yeah... I cannot read anymore. I cannot stop laughing.<br /><br />Who takes this lunatic seriously? Is he seriously one of the major proponents of the anti-vaccine movement? And he believes that we are weaponising mosquitoes to spread vaccines rather than say the three deadly diseases that mosquitoes already spread? Surely this is a drop in deadliness as we are not using Malaria, Dengue fever and Yellow Fever to kill people...<br /><br />And we are expected to take them seriously.&nbsp;</div></div>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/01/stupidest-weapon-ever.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Avicenna)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-3917978773273909455Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:39:00 +00002012-01-04T22:39:21.259-05:00pertussisvaccineswhooping coughW.A. whooping cough epidemic: ABC News Breakfast Jan. 2012This is Western Australia (not Washington State).&nbsp; <a href="http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/whooping-cough-cases-double-20120103-1pjbn.html#ixzz1iX1zeHCu" target="_blank">As the newspaper there reports</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">A whooping cough epidemic is rampant in Western Australia, prompting the Health Department to warn parents about the need to vaccinate against the infectious and potentially fatal respiratory disease.<br /><br />The recorded infection rate more than doubled from 1458 in 2010 to 3597 by December 23, 2011.<br /><br />Director of Communicable Disease Control Dr Paul Armstrong said November had the most recorded cases, with 704 people infected.<br /><div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/whooping-cough-cases-double-20120103-1pjbn.html#ixzz1iYEhfurW" style="color: #003399;">http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/whooping-cough-cases-double-20120103-1pjbn.html#ixzz1iYEhfurW</a></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">While I believe <a href="http://danamccaffery.com/" target="_blank">Dana McCaffery</a> was from New South Whales, it should be a stark reminder the danger this disease poses to newborns, whether it is in NSW, WA, or even in the US.&nbsp; Death, suffering, and misery are reduced by a simple and safe vaccine.&nbsp; Not only that, this vaccine depends on herd immunity for it to offer that protection to those too young to get the vaccine.&nbsp; As a matter of fact, if you come in contact with infants, or even think you might come into contact with infants, then check with your doctor about a booster.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Here is a video that accompanies the newspaper article.</div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6I_JXUyfCY4?rel=0" width="853"></iframe>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2012/01/wa-whooping-cough-epidemic-abc-news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-3516506518281973659Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:42:00 +00002011-12-13T18:42:01.306-05:00bacteriaevolutionScientific American: New Clues for Improving Antibiotics for Tolerant BacteriaBacteria evolve.&nbsp; We know this. Of course, this can cause some problems for those of us who have to deal with them.&nbsp; No, not like in Doonesbury, but real life:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2005/db051218.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2005/db051218.gif" width="239" /></a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h2 class="articleTitle">New Clues for Improving Antibiotics for Tolerant Bacteria</h2><div id="articleDek">Some of the ways bacteria protect themselves from antibiotics might be used against them to strengthen existing drugs</div>The superbug <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mrsa-genome-sequencing">MRSA</a> (methicillin-resistant <em>Staphylococcus aureus</em>) has provoked fear in doctors and patients alike because it is endowed with genetic characteristics that make it impervious to many antibiotics, and it can be deadly to boot. Less well known, however, is another class of bacteria that also resist antibiotics, but for reasons that have puzzled scientists. These bugs cause stubborn infections in ears and urinary tracts and post-surgical wounds, even though, from their genetic profiles, they should be perfectly good targets for antibiotics.<br /><br />Researchers are now starting to figure out how these bacteria withstand antibiotic treatment: by exploiting the same traits that have helped them endure environmental stressors. Two new research papers, published Friday in <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/"><em>Science</em></a>, show how bacteria use their ability to withstand prolonged periods without food or exposure to reactive oxygen to also fight off antibiotics. Knowing what these defenses are could lead to new ways of making existing therapies more effective.</blockquote><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=antibiotic-tolerance&amp;WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_EVO_20111121" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE. </b></span></a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/12/scientific-american-new-clues-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-7929309112785143567Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:37:00 +00002011-12-09T18:37:00.770-05:00evolutionWhat use is half a wing?An oft repeated creationist canard is "What use is half a wing?" or something equally inane.&nbsp; The University of Montana and the BBC shed some light on this that even a creationtard could possibly understand (assuming they got their fingers out of their ears long enough to listen).<br /><br /><blockquote><h1 class="story-header">Flap-running in birds is key to flight evolution</h1><div id="story_continues_1">The ungainly sight of a bird furiously flapping its wings as its spindly legs propel it forward could be a peek at evolutionary history.&nbsp;</div><div id="story_continues_1"><br /></div>"Flap-running", researchers say, may have been a key step in the evolution of flight.<br /><br />Experiments with pigeons have shown that it helps birds ascend slopes and suggests the earliest flightless birds might have used the same technique.<br /><br />The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.<br /><br />Brandon Jackson, from the University of Montana, US, who led the study, explained that he and his colleagues wanted to know why birds would flap-run when they were capable of flight.<br /><br />His co-researcher, Ken Dial, noticed this behaviour when filming a type of partridge known as a chuckar. <br />As the rotund birds negotiated obstacles, they would run up the objects flapping their wings. When Dr Dial discussed this behaviour with local ranchers and hunters, some reported that adult chukars would flap to run up cliffs, rather than fly. <br /><div class="caption body-narrow-width"><img align="right" alt="Diagram of pigeon flap-running up a slope (Image: Journal of Experimental Biology)" height="700" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/53625000/jpg/_53625114_pigeon_flap.jpg" width="304" />&nbsp;</div><div class="caption body-narrow-width"><span style="width: 304px;">The birds used far less energy when flap-running than when flying</span></div><div class="caption body-narrow-width"><span style="width: 304px;">&nbsp;</span> </div>Dr Jackson and his team decided to find out if the birds might be using the technique to save energy by measuring the amount of power generated by the flight muscles when birds flew and when they were flap-running.<br /><br />They surgically implanted electrodes into the flight muscles of pigeons - closely related birds that often flap and run even though they are very good fliers.<br /><br />The electrodes measured muscle activity in the birds as they flapped and ran up ramps of varying inclines, and as they flew parallel to those same ramps.<br /><br />The team was most surprised by what they saw when they compared the birds' muscle activity on a ramp with a 65 degree incline.<br /><br />Running up that ramp, explained Dr Jackson, "required about 10% as much power from the flight muscles" as flying.<br /><br />"The signal was imperceptible at first, and we actually thought we had a problem with the recording equipment. But when we zoomed in, there it was, about a tenth the magnitude that it was during flight," he said.<br /><br />"The birds seemed to be using hardly any power to flap their wings as they ran up the slopes."<br /><br />The method, the researchers say, is also an essential learning step for fledging chicks.</blockquote><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13879244" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: large;">CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE.</span></b></a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-use-is-half-wing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-4545713876237643780Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:30:00 +00002011-12-07T18:30:01.121-05:00autismevolutionScientific American: Autism in Another ApeEvery time I hear anyone proclaim how unique humans are, I want to correct them.&nbsp; We are animals just like any other animal.&nbsp; And we have some very close cousins out there that demonstrate this all the time.&nbsp; It's just that most of us are in our own little worlds that we don't ever notice.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h2 class="articleTitle"><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=autism-in-another-ape&amp;WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_EVO_20110919" target="_blank">Autism in Another Ape</a></h2>Rambunctious one-year-old Teco, a third-generation captive-born bonobo at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, has an ape’s usual fondness for games and grapes. But perhaps because of trauma from a difficult birth (his mother was in labor for 60 hours) or a genetic predisposition, Teco is different from his bonobo peers in ways that resemble autism in young children. He could not cling to his mother or nurse the way healthy young apes do instinctively, mimicking the aversion to physical contact seen in children with autism. Teco also tends to fixate on shiny objects and avoids eye contact, and he has trouble coordinating his four limbs. A genetic analysis of bonobos, already under way, may shed light on Teco’s condition and offer new perspectives on autism’s genetic roots in humans.</blockquote>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/12/scientific-american-autism-in-another.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-1781761229474014577Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:24:00 +00002011-12-05T18:24:00.741-05:00AIDSHIVvaccinesAIDS Vaccine?I'd like to present two papers without too much comment.&nbsp; These speak to trials and tests on the progress of an HIV vaccine.<br /><br /><a href="http://factsnotfantasy.com/uploaded_images/MVA-B%20phase%20I.%20pdf" target="_blank">MVA-B phase I</a><br /><br /><a href="http://factsnotfantasy.com/uploaded_images/MVA-B%20phase%20I%20JVirol.pdf" target="_blank">MVA-B phase I JVirol</a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/12/aids-vaccine.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-6035704651455989921Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:14:00 +00002011-12-03T13:14:58.555-05:00herd immunityvaccinesOpting Out of Vaccinations...Again, Todd W. has the pulse on this issue.<br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="false" src="http://www.newsy.com/embed-video/9802/" width="640"></iframe><br /><br />As he also notes<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The only quibble I really have is that the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2067323/How-thousands-parents-skipping-vaccinations-children-fear-24-shots-age-six.html#ixzz1f2HlkxJr" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">quote from Jennifer Margulis</a> went unaddressed:, <br /><blockquote>Many of the vaccines are unnecessary and public health officials don't honestly know what the effect of giving so many vaccines to such small children really are...</blockquote><br />Most, if not all, of the vaccines are necessary for public health and prevention of disease. And the effects of the vaccine schedule can be seen from the long history of safe use.</blockquote>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/12/opting-out-of-vaccinations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-8464333550546217623Sat, 03 Dec 2011 16:57:00 +00002011-12-03T11:57:33.705-05:00blogTechnical DifficultiesIf you follow this blog and have been expecting updates, my apologies.&nbsp; I had a busy month lined up for November as far as my personal life, so I queued up a bunch of posts and then let them go on autopilot.&nbsp; Sadly, instead of setting them up to publish automatically, they saved as drafts and never made it to published status.&nbsp; I am about to rectify that situation, so bear with me as a bunch of posts pop up rather suddenly.http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/12/technical-difficulties.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-3408184532798443960Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:50:00 +00002011-12-03T12:53:21.463-05:00pertussisvaccineswhooping coughWhooping Cough in New YorkMany people assume that people dying from preventable diseases only happens in third world countries, and places where public health is in the dark ages.&nbsp; Well, I suppose if the anti-vax pro-disease nutters have their way, the US <i>may </i>become that type of place.<br /><h1 class="in-article">NY whooping cough cases highest since 1999</h1><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/c_wkbKAdnrQ?rel=0" width="640"></iframe><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="alb_sldr" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><tbody><tr class="odd"><td class="imp"><a class="nodecor" href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/315319" title="Add another image"><span class="imp" style="color: #cc1100; font-size: 16px;">&nbsp;+</span><img align="absmiddle" border="0" src="http://www.digitaljournal.com/images/image.gif" style="margin-bottom: 3px;" /></a></td></tr><tr valign="top"><td colspan="1"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="body"><a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=New+York%2C+NY%2C+United+States&amp;z=4" target="_blank" title="New York, NY, United States">New York</a> - Early this year, 13 diagnosed cases of whooping cough were in Smithtown, New York. As the year progressed, that number would increase drastically to 216 cases throughout the entire Suffolk County. </div><div class="body">This is the highest number of whooping cough cases reported in the area since 1999. Also called pertussis, whooping cough is highly contagious and can cause serious illness in infants who are too young to be vaccinated with the five required shots. Families with newborns should have teenagers and adults vaccinated. <br /><blockquote>For Infants and Children: In the US, the recommended pertussis vaccine for children is called DTaP. This is a safe and effective combination vaccine that protects children against three diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. For maximum protection against pertussis, children need five DTaP shots. The first three shots are given at 2, 4, and 6 months of age. The fourth shot is given between 15 and 18 months of age, and a fifth shot is given when a child enters school, at 4–6 years of age. If a 7-10 year old is not up-to-date with DTaP vaccines, a dose of Tdap should be given before the 11-12 year old check up.(<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/features/Pertussis/">CDC</a>)</blockquote>Whooping cough is caused by bacteria called <i>Bordetella pertussis</i>, and is one of the most common of all vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States. If not properly vaccinated with the DTaP vaccinations, over half of infants under one year of age will end up in the hospital with lung infection; one out of 100 will develop convulsions from the disease; and another one out of 100 will die. </div><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/315319#ixzz1fUlbG0nh" style="color: #003399;">http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/315319#ixzz1fUlbG0nh</a><br /><h1 class="in-article">&nbsp;</h1>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/12/whooping-cough-in-new-york.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-7071167937081492794Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:57:00 +00002011-12-03T12:00:45.123-05:00autismvaccinesA Photon in the Darkness: “Latex causes autism”Well, I hope that this is actually a sign that the anti-vax pro-disease loonies are finally running out of steam, and are grasping at straws like a drowning man grabs at anything in their death throes...&nbsp; A Photon in the Darkness has this to say about this crazy idea:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><strong>Let the Nonsense begin!:</strong><br /><br />Before May of this year, I was in blissfiul ignorance of the “hypothesis” that latex - specifically, latex in <em>vaccines</em> (of course) - was the cause (or <em>a </em>cause) of regressive autism. But then Orac (of the <em>Respectful Insolence</em> ‘blog) posted a&nbsp;short notice (<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/05/anti-vaccine_contortions_they_never_end.php" target="_blank">here</a>) of a&nbsp;press release&nbsp;for the book <em>Vaccine Delivery and Autism (The Latex Connection)</em>, by Dochiak and Dunn. It was a small post, with&nbsp;only a&nbsp;minimum of “respectful insolence” added, since the premise of the book seemed laughable enough.&nbsp; The press release described the authors thusly:<br /><blockquote><em>“Michael J. Dochniak and Denise H. Dunn are leading experts in the etiology of allergy-induced regressive autism and have previously authored a book for Nova Science, entitled ‘Allergies and Autism.’ Dochniak is a scientific researcher in the field of Hevea brasiliensis natural-latex induced autism. Dunn is an early childhood educator who works closely with autistic children and adults, and has been teaching for more than 15 years.”</em></blockquote>Fortunately, it wasn’t too hard to check on Mr. Dochniak’s credentials as a “scientific researcher in the field of Hevea brasiliensis natural-latex-induced autism”. In reality, he has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and psychology (both awarded in 1985) and has published - apart from the two books - <a href="http://www.laboratoriosilesia.com/upfiles/sibi/P0807700.pdf" target="_blank">one article</a> in <em>Medical Hypotheses</em>.&nbsp; That article - needless to say - had no&nbsp;data. In fact, Mr. Dochniak’s only “research” into&nbsp;autism has been in the library and on the Internet, although he <em>has</em> written a few articles on latex for adhesive and sealant trade newsletters and is on a number of patents and patent applications, including one for a <a href="http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&amp;Sect2=HITOFF&amp;d=PG01&amp;p=1&amp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&amp;r=1&amp;f=G&amp;l=50&amp;s1=%2220070034214%22.PGNR.&amp;OS=DN/20070034214&amp;RS=DN/20070034214" target="_blank">“Method to affect the development of autism spectrum disorders” (#20070034214)</a>. <br /><br />&nbsp;A day after the post, the lead author, Mr. Michael Dochniak,<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/05/anti-vaccine_contortions_they_never_end.php#comment-3853121" target="_blank"> appeared in the comment thread </a>and - as they say - hilarity ensued.</blockquote><a href="http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=243"><b><span style="font-size: large;">CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST. </span></b></a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/12/photon-in-darkness-latex-causes-autism.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-7498188201842391550Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:07:00 +00002011-12-03T13:10:20.794-05:00chicken poxvaccinesvaricellaHarpocrates Speaks: Varicella Vaccination Among Older Kids Protects InfantsAnother timely article from Todd W.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h3 class="post-title entry-title"> <a href="http://silencedbyageofautism.blogspot.com/2011/11/varicella-vaccination-among-older-kids.html">Varicella Vaccination Among Older Kids Protects Infants</a> </h3>Turning on the news this morning, I was greeted with a story that caught my ear. Published online, ahead of print, a new study in the journal <i>Pediatrics</i>, "<a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/11/22/peds.2011-0017.abstract" target="_blank">Varicella in Infants After Implementation of the US Varicella Vaccination Program</a>", looked at the incidence of varicella (chickenpox) among infants under 12 months of age.<br /><br />The varicella vaccine was <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/varicella/vac-faqs-gen.htm" target="_blank">approved in 1995</a> and is recommended for all children aged 12 months to 12 years. It is a <a href="http://childrenshospitalblog.org/live-virus-vaccine-vs-killed-virus-vaccine-whats-the-difference/" target="_blank">"live" virus vaccine</a>, meaning that the vaccine uses intact, though weakened, virus particles that grant immunity without causing full-blown disease. Vaccines of this sort are generally more effective than "killed" virus vaccines, which only use part of the virus. Because of the approved age range for the vaccine, it does not provide direct protection to infants under 12 months of age, but it can provide protection through herd immunity.<br /><br />So what did the researchers find?<br /><a href="" name="more"></a><br />In the observational study, the authors looked at chickenpox incidence among infants under 12 months of age from 1995 to 2008. The population was broken up into 0-5 months and 6-11 months. They found that incidence among the total infant population fell 89.7% over the period examined. They also noted that complications and severity of disease was lower in the younger age group vs. the older group. The authors speculate that this may have been due to maternal antibodies (which generally provide some protection to infants for about 6 months).</blockquote><a href="http://silencedbyageofautism.blogspot.com/2011/11/varicella-vaccination-among-older-kids.html"><b><span style="font-size: large;">CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST. </span></b></a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/11/harpocrates-speaks-varicella.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-6705346682652831253Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:16:00 +00002011-12-03T12:19:42.007-05:00autismvaccinesDr Bob is only looking out for you (or himself)The Sears' <a href="http://askdrsears.com/">website</a> has been modified again, and here is Dr. Bob himself, explaining the origin of his alternative vaccination schedule. It is really all about parental concerns (not about his own <a href="http://blogs.plos.org/thepanicvirus/2011/06/03/does-this-mean-no-more-dr-bob-sears-photo-ops-with-andrew-wakefield/">flirtations</a> with the anti-vaccine crowd, or the fact that his "alternative" schedule almost <a href="http://getbetterhealth.com/tag/bob-sears">doubles</a> the number of office visits for vaccine purposes at $75 to $200 dollar a pop). Good to know, right?<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kQwl2S_I4LU?rel=0" width="853"></iframe>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/11/dr-bob-is-only-looking-out-for-you-or.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-1559639801896630019Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:14:00 +00002011-12-03T12:15:35.066-05:00deathsvaccinesDeath due to lack of immunityI don't think I can, or need to say anything else about this video:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1Jsf9b8qa6I?rel=0" width="853"></iframe>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-dont-think-i-can-or-need-to-say.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7034398534949114566.post-4370021661557254916Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:04:00 +00002011-12-03T13:06:27.415-05:00chicken poxcriminalvaccinesHarpocrates Speaks: The Sequelae of PoxA follow up to a post by Todd W.&nbsp; And I am recovering beautifully from my surgery thank you.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.straferight.com/photopost/data/500/medium/double-facepalm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://www.straferight.com/photopost/data/500/medium/double-facepalm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><h3 class="post-title entry-title"> <a href="http://silencedbyageofautism.blogspot.com/2011/11/sequelae-of-pox.html">The Sequelae of Pox</a> </h3>A couple weekends ago, something of a firestorm erupted among skeptical bloggers. Namely, the <a href="http://silencedbyageofautism.blogspot.com/2011/11/pox-by-post.html" target="_blank">news about parents sending pox-laden lollipops through the mail</a>. It was covered by <a href="http://mikethemadbiologist.com/2011/10/31/pox-parties-and-bioterrorism/" target="_blank">Mike the Mad Biologist</a>, <a href="http://biologyfiles.fieldofscience.com/2011/11/antivax-women-who-mail-pox-who-are-they.html" target="_blank">Emily Willingham</a>, <a href="http://thepoxesblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/free-shipping-on-chickenpox-when-you.html" target="_blank">Reuben</a>, <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2011/11/chickenpox_parties--just_a_fac.php" target="_blank">Tara Smith</a>, <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/11/pox_packages_child_abuse_and_the_violati.php" target="_blank">Orac</a> and <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/11/05/a-pox-on-antivaxxers/" target="_blank">Phil Plait</a>. Largely, the various bloggers, myself included, condemned the parents in the <a href="http://www.kpho.com/story/15896021/cbs-5-investigates-mail-order-diseases" target="_blank">original story</a> because they were knowingly sending infectious material in the mail.<br /><br />Some folks in the comments of the various articles made the observation that every day, people lick envelopes, handle packages in perhaps less than sterile conditions and so, perhaps unwittingly, leave unintended presents for the recipients, not to mention the delivery personnel. How is that any different from what these parents have done?<br /><a href="" name="more"></a><br />First off, I will readily admit that what the parents were doing probably would not lead to anyone contracting chicken pox. Since the virus does not remain viable for very long at all in the environment, it would most likely be rendered harmless given the amount of time it takes the package to be mailed. Even if the pox package managed to reach its target quickly, fomites like lollipops and spit-soaked rags also are unlikely to cause an infection, as the virus is primarily spread via the respiratory system. The oral route is a bit rough on the bug, and it would likely be destroyed before it could actually cause an infection.</blockquote><a href="http://silencedbyageofautism.blogspot.com/2011/11/sequelae-of-pox.html"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST. </b></span></a>http://vaccinesandevolution.blogspot.com/2011/11/harpocrates-speaks-sequelae-of-pox.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Larian LeQuella)0